- •I think, just time to catch our train at Paddington,
- •I lay back against the cushions, puffing at my cigar,
- •In preventing Silver Blaze from being there at the
- •In a small villa about two hundred yards from the
- •Impressed, however, by the extreme pallor of his face
- •In recovering my horse."
- •Interest to the dialogue of the two detectives.
- •Interests of the Mapleton stables?"
- •Instant, and confine ourselves to finding out what has
- •If our supposition is correct, then the horse must
- •Impressions, and that his own boots exactly
- •I was thunderstruck by my friend's words. We had only
- •In the extreme.
- •Is clear."
- •Its back the well-known black and red of the Colonel.
- •Invisible. Simpson in his flight had dropped his
- •Importance. Hullo! That's not your pipe on the table.
- •I had followed his reasoning.
- •I find that there is something in her life and in her
- •It. I have seen his death certificate. This sickened
- •Indescribably guilty about them. My wife had always
- •Irresolute before the door.
- •I glanced down at the new patent leathers which I was
- •Very shiny top hat and a neat suit of sober black,
- •Intend to do about Mawson's?'
- •In which he sang your praises very loudly.'
- •I put that with the voice and figure being the same,
- •I had just time to get up to town by the night train
- •Interesting experience for both of us."
- •In a calmer tone. "You may wait here a moment; and
- •It appeared from its position in the paper to have
- •It appears that last week a new clerk named Hall
- •Victor,' turning to his son, 'when we broke up that
- •I were. His attack did not last long, however, for
- •In a tone of surprise.
- •It was to me like a fire in a snow-storm. I was glad,
- •Vicious habits, who had by an ingenious system of
- •It meant nothing; but after a while, when he had
- •If he is to be trusted."
- •It was, we determined to neglect no precaution, and to
- •It. When we pulled him aboard the boat he proved to
- •I had heard him mention the case more than once,
- •Inexplicable business.'
- •It is not a very difficult part to play in a quiet
- •In his attention to his duties. I made no allusion to
- •I began to suspect that her brain was affected.
- •Incredible to me that he could have gone away leaving
- •I, as we drove past it.
- •Investigation seemed to be progressing.
- •It was low in the heavens, and I calculated that in
- •In a suit of black, who squatted down upon his hams
- •It was some time before the health of my friend Mr.
- •14Th of April that I received a telegram from Lyons
- •Insufficient to rouse him from his nervous
- •International affair."
- •In England to which the thief or thieves would be
- •Inspector bowed.
- •Information from her. The shock has made her
- •Inspector, "it is of course a conceivable theory that
- •It. Now, of the two men, it is clear that the one who
- •Invalid is a youth. In this case, looking at the
- •Indicate the same thing. I have no doubt at all that
- •Indications of bootmarks about this ditch, I was
- •If they could have found a single paper--which,
- •I feel that young man's grip on my throat now, and the
- •If you will only come around
- •I looked at the clock. It was a quarter to twelve.
- •In the establishment of the Guild of St. George, which
- •Voices were to be heard, those of Barclay and of his
- •Inexplicable fact that neither upon Mrs. Barclay's
- •Individual. You know my methods, Watson. There was
- •Intruder carried away the key with him when he left."
- •Immediately on her return, she had gone to the room in
- •Indescribably impression of deformity; but the face
- •Value of his peculiar methods of investigation, the
- •It seemed to me, a state of considerable agitation.
- •In the grip of his mysterious malady.
- •In straw, you know, and are thinner for their length
- •In the bed, but of that I cannot be absolutely
- •I had never heard of the institution, and my face must
- •Into Whitehall every morning and back every evening.
- •Into Pall Mall, and then, leaving me for a minute, he
- •I began to understand what my friend meant when he
- •It was certainly more roomy than the ordinary
- •Is visiting us, and to let us have the answers. But
- •I was thrilled with horror at his appearance. He was
- •Vitus's dance. I could not help thinking that his
- •Injury to yourself.'
- •Victoria.'
- •2473.' That was in all the dailies. No answer."
- •Indeed if we fail to discover the rest. You must
- •It was almost dark before we found ourselves in Pall
- •Into the room, he threw up the window and hurled the
- •Instantly seen through the disguise when, on the
- •Influences which he commanded had won him a good
- •It was not because I did not appreciate his talents,
- •Informed me that he had a new commission of trust for
- •I put out my hand and was about to shake the man, who
- •Is certainly one of extraordinary interest. What did
- •If the intruder had left any traces--any cigar-end or
- •Into the front room to wait.
- •Into a sick-room for me. Here I have lain, Mr.
- •Illness prevented him from being that. He repeated
- •I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid
- •Is a possible supposition that the thief has had a
- •I met him accordingly next morning and we traveled
- •Into a light sleep when I was suddenly aroused by a
- •I had been stronger. As it was, I rang the bell and
- •It is locked at night."
- •It is fortunate that you are old school-fellows, as
- •Interest him in Afghanistan, in India, in social
- •I suppose that there has been no answer from my cabman
- •I crouched down among the bushes on the other side,
- •If he is quick enough to catch his bird, well and good.
- •Idea that the coast was clear, I kept guard as I have
- •I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to
- •If I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty
- •In such a position through your continual persecution
- •Victoria. You could not have made any slip in
- •I would deduce and acted accordingly."
- •It had been written in his study.
Idea that the coast was clear, I kept guard as I have
described. I already knew that the papers were
probably in the room, but I had no desire to rip up
all the planking and skirting in search of them. I
let him take them, therefore, from the hiding-place,
and so saved myself an infinity of trouble. Is there
any other point which I can make clear?"
"Why did he try the window on the first occasion," I
asked, "when he might have entered by the door?"
"In reaching the door he would have to pass seven
bedrooms. On the other hand, he could get out on to
the lawn with ease. Anything else?"
"You do not think," asked Phelps, "that he had any
murderous intention? The knife was only meant as a
tool."
"It may be so," answered Holmes, shrugging his
shoulders. "I can only say for certain that Mr.
Joseph Harrison is a gentleman to whose mercy I should
be extremely unwilling to trust."
Adventure XI
The Final Problem
It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to
write these the last words in which I shall ever
record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr.
Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In an incoherent
and, as I deeply feel, an entirely inadequate fashion,
I have endeavored to give some account of my strange
experiences in his company from the chance which first
brought us together at the period of the "Study in
Scarlet," up to the time of his interference in the
matter of the "Naval Treaty"--an interference which
had the unquestionable effect of preventing a serious
international complication. It was my intention to
have stopped there, and to have said nothing of that
event which has created a void in my life which the
lapse of two years has done little to fill. My hand
has been forced, however, by the recent letters in
which Colonel James Moriarty defends the memory of his
brother, and I have no choice but to lay the facts
before the public exactly as they occurred. I alone
know the absolute truth of the matter, and I am
satisfied that the time has come when no good purpose
is to be served by its suppression. As far as I know,
there have been only three accounts in the public
press: that in the Journal de Geneve on May 6th,
1891, the Reuter's despatch in the English papers on
May 7th, and finally the recent letter to which I have
alluded. Of these the first and second were extremely
condensed, while the last is, as I shall now show, an
absolute perversion of the facts. It lies with me to
tell for the first time what really took place between
Professor Moriarty and Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
It may be remembered that after my marriage, and my
subsequent start in private practice, the very
intimate relations which had existed between Holmes
and myself became to some extent modified. He still
came to me from time to time when he desired a
companion in his investigation, but these occasions
grew more and more seldom, until I find that in the
year 1890 there were only three cases of which I
retain any record. During the winter of that year and
the early spring of 1891, I saw in the papers that he
had been engaged by the French government upon a
matter of supreme importance, and I received two notes
from Holmes, dated from Narbonne and from Nimes, from
which I gathered that his stay in France was likely to
be a long one. It was with some surprise, therefore,
that I saw him walk into my consulting-room upon the
evening of April 24th. It struck me that he was
looking even paler and thinner than usual.
"Yes, I have been using myself up rather too freely,"
he remarked, in answer to my look rather than to my
words; "I have been a little pressed of late. Have
you any objection to my closing your shutters?"
The only light in the room came from the lamp upon the
table at which I had been reading. Holmes edged his
way round the wall and flinging the shutters together,
he bolted them securely.
"You are afraid of something?" I asked.
"Well, I am."
"Of what?"
"Of air-guns."
"My dear Holmes, what do you mean?"
"I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to
understand that I am by no means a nervous man. At
the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to
refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.
Might I trouble you for a match?" He drew in the
smoke of his cigarette as if the soothing influence
was grateful to him.
"I must apologize for calling so late," said he, "and