to the stor-rm and back to the hotel,
where I wint to slape like a bhoy mesilf--me that was sixty-four me last
birthday and niver thought to make a fool of mesilf with a gang of bhoys
and a gasoline engine--and that on a holiday!"

FOOTNOTE:

[D] Reprinted from "Tad Sheldon, Boy Scout," by special permission of
The Macmillan Company. Copyright, 1913, by R. Harold Paget.

[Illustration]

IV.--The Red-Headed League

_By Arthur Conan Doyle_

I HAD called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the autumn
of last year, and found him in deep conversation with a very stout,
florid-faced elderly gentleman, with fiery red hair. With an apology for
my intrusion, I was about to withdraw, when Holmes pulled me abruptly
into the room and closed the door behind me.

"You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear Watson," he
said, cordially.

"I was afraid that you were engaged."

"So I am. Very much so."

"Then I can wait in the next room."

"Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and helper
in many of my most successful cases, and I have no doubt that he will
be of the utmost use to me in yours also."

The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of greeting,
with a quick little questioning glance from his small, fat-encircled
eyes.

"Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his arm-chair, and putting
his finger-tips together, as was his custom when in judicial moods. "I
know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and
outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life. You have
shown your relish for it by the enthusiasm which has prompted you to
chronicle, and, if you will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish
so many of my own little adventures."

"Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I
observed.

"You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we went
into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary Sutherland, that for
strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life
itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the
imagination."

"A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting."

"You did, doctor, but none the less you must come round to my view, for
otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you, until your
reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to be right. Now, Mr.
Jabez Wilson here has been good enough t