The Project Gutenberg EBook of R. Holmes & Co., by John Kendrick Bangs

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Title: R. Holmes & Co.

Author: John Kendrick Bangs

Release Date: February 11, 2007 [EBook #20559]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK R. HOLMES & CO. ***

Produced by Douglas Ethington

R. HOLMES & CO.

Being the Remarkable Adventures of Raffles Holmes, Esq., Detective and
Amateur Cracksman by Birth

by John Kendrick Bangs

Contents
I. INTRODUCING MR. RAFFLES HOLMES
II. THE ADVENTURE OF THE DORRINGTON RUBY SEAL
III. THE ADVENTURE OF MRS. BURLINGAME'S DIAMOND STOMACHER
IV. THE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING PENDANTS
V. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BRASS CHECK
VI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE HIRED BURGLAR
VII. THE REDEMPTION OF YOUNG BILLINGTON RAND
VIII. "THE NOSTALGIA OF NERVY JIM THE SNATCHER"
IX. THE ADVENTURE OF ROOM 407
X. THE MAJOR-GENERAL'S PEPPERPOTS

R. HOLMES & CO.

I
INTRODUCING MR. RAFFLES HOLMES

It was a blistering night in August. All day long the mercury in the
thermometer had been flirting with the figures at the top of the tube, and
the promised shower at night which a mendacious Weather Bureau had been
prophesying as a slight mitigation of our sufferings was conspicuous wholly
by its absence. I had but one comfort in the sweltering hours of the day,
afternoon and evening, and that was that my family were away in the
mountains, and there was no law against my sitting around all day clad only
in my pajamas, and otherwise concealed from possibly intruding eyes by the
wreaths of smoke that I extracted from the nineteen or twenty cigars which,
when there is no protesting eye to suggest otherwise, form my daily
allowance. I had tried every method known to the resourceful flat-dweller
of modern times to get cool and to stay so, but alas, it was impossible.
Even the radiators, which all winter long had never once given forth a
spark of heat, now hissed to the touch of my moistened finger. Enough
cooling drinks to float an ocean greyhound had passed into my inner man,
with no other result than to make me perspire more profusely than ever,
and in so far as sensations went, to make me feel ho