in the presence of the great elemental forces of nature!”“It is that the chief proof of man’s real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.”“He (Sherlock Holmes) took out his revolver as he spoke, and, having loaded two of the chambers, he put it back into the right-hand pocket of his jacket.”“The main thing with people of that sort,” said Holmes, “is never to let them think that their information can be of the slightest importance to you. If you listen to them under protest, as it were, you are very likely to get what you want.”“I think that we have had a close shave ourselves of being arrested for the crime.”“The old scale of pay, and a guinea to the boy who finds the boat. Here’s a day in advance. Now off you go!” He handed them a shilling each.“No: I am not tired. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely.”“He took up his violin from the corner, and as I stretched myself out he began to play some low, dreamy, melodious air—his own, no doubt, for he had a remarkable gift for improvisation. I have a vague remembrance of his gaunt limbs, his earnest face and the rise and fall of his bow.”“Women are never to be entirely trusted—not the best of them.”“I suppose that Mr. Sherlock Holmes has gone out,” I said to Mrs. Hudson as she came up to lower the blinds.“No, sir. He’s gone to his room, sir. Do you know, sir,” sinking her voice into an impressive whisper, “I’m afraid for his health.”“Why so, Mrs. Hudson?”“Well, he’s that strange, sir. After you was gone he walked and walked, up and down, and up and down, until I was weary of the sound of his footsteps. Then I heard him talking to himself and muttering, and every time the bell rang out he came on the stair head with ‘What is that, Mrs. Hudson?’ And now he has slammed off to his room, but I can hear him walking away the same as ever. I hope he’s not going to be ill, sir. I ventured to say something to him about cooling medicine, but he turned on me, sir, with such a look that I didn’t know how ever I got out of the room.”“His preference for the subtle and bizarre explanation when a plainer and more commonplace one lay ready to his hand.”“You know I like to work the details of my case out.”Your friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, is a wonderful man, sir.”— “He’s a man who is not to be beat. I have known that young man go into a good many cases, but I never saw the case yet that he could not throw a light on. He is irregular in his methods and a little quick perhaps in jumping at theories, but, on the whole, I think he would have made the most promising officer, and I don’t care who knows it.”“I have oysters and a brace grouse, with something a little choice in white wine. Watson, you have never yet recognized my merits as a housekeeper.”“Holmes could talk exceedingly well when he chose, and that night he did choose. He appeared to be in a state of nervous exaltation. I have never known him so brilliant. He spoke on a quick succession of subjects—on miracle plays, on medieval pottery, on Stradivarius violins, on the Buddhism of Ceylon, and on the warships of the future—handling each as though he had made a special study of it. His bright humour marked the reaction from his black depression of the preceding days.”“Well, I gave my mind a thorough rest by plunging into a chemical analysis. One of our greatest statesmen has said that a change of work is the best rest. So it is. When I had succeeded in dissolving the hydrocarbon which I was working at, I came back to our problem of the Sholtos, and thought the whole matter out again.”“If I have it,” said she, “I owe it to you.”“No, no,” I answered, “not to me but to my friend Sherlock Holmes. With all the will in the world, I could never have followed up a clue which has taxed even his analytical genius.”“The man that was clever enough to hunt me down is clever enough to pick an iron box from the bottom of the river.”“Well, Holmes,” said Athelney Jones, “you are a man to be humoured, and we all know that you are a connoisseur of crime.”Watson“Dr. Watson is the very man. Your correspondence says two friends. He and I have worked together before.”“Miss Morstan, could we secure her rights, would change from the needy governess to the richest heiress in England. Surely it was the place of a loyal friend to rejoice at such news, yet I am ashamed to say that selfishness took me by the soul and that my heart turned as hard as lead within me. I stammered out some few halting words of congratulation, and then sat downcast, with my head drooped, deaf to the babble of our new acquaintance.”“Miss Morstan and I stood together, and her hand was in mine. A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two, who had never seen each other before that day, between no word or even look of affection ever passed, and yet now in an hour of trouble our hands instinctively sought for each other. I have marveled at it since, but at the time it seemed the most natural thing that I should go out to her so, and, as she has often told me, there was in her also the instinct to turn to me for protection. So we stood hand in hand like two children, and there was peace in our hearts for all the dark things that surrounded us.”“Perhaps you are too tired?”“By no means. I don’t think I could rest until I know more of this fantastic business. I have seen something of the rough side of life, but I give you my word that this quick secession of strange surprises to-night has shaken my nerve completely. I should like, however, to see the matter through with you, now that I have got so far.”“Your presence will be of great service to me,” Holmes answered. “We shall work the case out independently and leave this fellow Jones to exult over any mare’s-nest which he may choose to construct.”“I found myself in dreamland, with the sweet face of Mary Morstan looking down upon me.”“You can be much more useful if you will remain here as my representative. I am loath to go, for it is quite on the cards that some message may come during the day, though Wiggins was despondent about it last night. I want you to open all notes and telegrams, and to act on your own judgment if any news should come. Can I rely upon you?”“You see, a good many of the criminal classes begin to know me—especially since our friend here took to publishing some of my cases.”“I have oysters and a brace grouse, with something a little choice in white wine. Watson, you have never yet recognized my merits as a housekeeper.”Crime & Detection“Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner.”“Eliminate all the other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.”“Not at all,” I answered earnestly. “It is of the greatest interest to me, especially since I have had the opportunity of observing your practical application of it. But you spoke just now of observation and deductions. Surely the one to some extent implies the other.”“Why, hardly,” he answered, leaning back luxuriously in his armchair and sending up thick blue wreaths from his pipe. “For example, observation shows me that you have been to the Wigmore Street Post-Office this morning, but deduction lets me know that when there you dispatched a telegram.”“Right!” said I. “Right on both points! But I confess that I don’t see how you arrived at it. It was a sudden impulse upon my part, and I have mentioned it to no one.”“It is simplicity itself,” he remarked, chuckling at my surprise, “so absurdly simple that an explanation is superfluous; and yet it may serve to define the limits of observation and of deduction. Observation tells me that you have a little reddish mould adhering to your instep. Just opposite the Wigmore Street Office they have taken out the pavement and thrown up some earth, which lies in such a way that it is difficult to avoid treading in it in entering. The earth is of this peculiar reddish tint which is found, as far as I know, nowhere else in the neighborhood. So much is observation. The rest is deduction.”“How, then, did you deduce the telegram?”“Why, of course I knew that you had not written a letter, since I sat opposite to you all morning. I see also in your open desk there that you have a sheet of stamps and a thick bundle of postcards. What could you go into the post office for, then, but to send a wire? Eliminate all the other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.”“I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule.”“You will not apply my precept,” he said, shaking his head. “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”“You know I like to work the details of my case out.”Holmes’ Observation of Watson“Why, hardly,” he answered, leaning back luxuriously in his armchair and sending up thick blue wreaths from his pipe. “For example, observation shows me that you have been to the Wigmore Street Post-Office this morning, but deduction lets me know that when there you dispatched a telegram.”“Right!” said I. “Right on both points! But I confess that I don’t see how you arrived at it. It was a sudden impulse upon my part, and I have mentioned it to no one.”“It is simplicity itself,” he remarked, chuckling at my surprise, “so absurdly simple that an explanation is superfluous; and yet it may serve to define the
