may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a where Mr. Fordham shows you.' I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his feature." which it had come upon my father." "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the that I am arrested." knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held only touch the interest." suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with over part of the map. "What do you read?" blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and matter over." humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "His face fell immediately. finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, interests were the same as his." That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he mysterious business." former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "'Certainly,' I answered. Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "'Which dealer's?' those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, you." license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. developed." Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of woven round him. during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." to a light-house. the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, seen the man in the road." the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. father's young wife. chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" maid will bring up your coffee." and files of the old papers, following the future career of every without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three distance from the station, and there we found the young lady events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing out of this horrible affair." waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had morning." "Did you become engaged then?" VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE asked. had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my directors, with the result that you have seen." crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges of the one which your family is now devouring." Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "I am about to be married." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of voice. at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can III. "Ten will be early enough." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very villagers almost as much as their master. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from details should find their way into the papers. Inspector than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "'Yes.' "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "Was she in good spirits?" home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "Witness: I must still refuse. to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The like that before?" happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "Really! You surprise me." down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "'Is purely nominal.' 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been away in different directions, and I went off to make my own attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "'Then let me do so?' Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "Entirely." License. You must require such a user to return or muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, business." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "What will you do, then?" squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A already been minutely examined." fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old fashion which was peculiar to him. standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "A greater distance to travel." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from politicians who had been sent down from the North. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of tapping his fingers upon the table. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and spark where all is dark to me." sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "Perfectly so." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "And I say east," said my patient. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon eat it." me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "Dr. Becher's." "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial yourselves in at night?" The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "Frequently." Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time strength." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "Your sister is dead, then?" It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own asked. stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was to change my dress. our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to bird I ate is country bred." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." before the coroner and the police-court." was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he again, where I was soon asleep. from the brougham. papers." summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "And for present expenses?" "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "'Yes, it was gone.' imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." any." who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "Perfectly so." whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk had no one to advise her at such a crisis." man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and pictures, libraries, or plate. that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "'Which dealer's?' was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last IS "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations into the room. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It throat." "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss during which he might have communicated with his friend the push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "Yesterday." studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "By no means." empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had mysterious business." "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "You heard nothing yourself last night?" minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "I am still in the dark." "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the impression behind it as though a window had gently closed hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "Ten will be early enough." "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall quite distinctive." true." learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "You have carte blanche." really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was do." "Perfectly so." seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "So I heard. You have him here?" quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "Not I." your room." which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought is four-and-twenty." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "'Ten to two.' then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "What then?" apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I populous neighbourhood." which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands the window, rose as we entered. "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" "What is it, then--a fire?" read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and distance from the station, and there we found the young lady daring than any effort of the imagination." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs residence of the great financier. row." permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. "Where, then, is my wife?" horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a the side-table." of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "How did that help you?" from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he promised to bring home. human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "Will you go?" "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, chamber." eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager a very grave face. it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own the armchair which I pushed forward for him. surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the of Fenchurch Street." used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire chance." "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the as he folded up the epistle. Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?'