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Breadth of view, my dear Mr. Mac, is one of the essentials of our profession. The interplay of ideas and the oblique uses of knowledge are often of extraordinary interest. You will excuse these remarks from one who, though a mere connoisseur of crime, is still rather older and perhaps more experienced than yourself.” “I’m the first to admit that,” said the detective heartily. “You get to your point, I admit; but you have such a deuced round-the-corner way of doing it.”
“How long is this to last?” asked the inspector finally. “And what is it we are watching for?” “I have no more notion than you how long it is to last,” Holmes answered with some asperity. “If criminals would always schedule their movements like railway trains, it would certainly be more convenient for all of us.
Well, we can only possess our souls in patience until this excellent inspector comes back for us. Meanwhile we can thank our lucky fate which has rescued us for a few short hours from the insufferable fatigues of idleness.”
he knew more of the poop than the forecastle.
“Why should you go further in it? What have you to gain from it?” “What, indeed? It is art for art’s sake, Watson. I suppose when you doctored you found yourself studying cases without thought of a fee?” “For my education, Holmes.” “Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.
Go, then, my dear Watson, and if my humble counsel can ever be valued at so extravagant a rate as two pence a word, it waits your disposal night and day at the end of the Continental wire.”
Now, Watson, we will light our lamp; we will, however, take the precaution to open our window to avoid the premature decease of two deserving members of society, and you will seat yourself near that open window in an armchair unless, like a sensible man, you determine to have nothing to do with the affair.
“How do you know that?” “I followed you.” “I saw no one.” “That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.
Holmes smiled. “I gather we have your good wishes, Miss Winter,” “If I can help to put him where he belongs, I’m yours to the rattle.” said our visitor with fierce energy. There was an intensity of hatred in her white, set face and her blazing eyes such as woman seldom and man never can attain.
A confederate who foresees your conclusions and course of action is always dangerous, but one to whom each development comes as a perpetual surprise, and to whom the future is always a closed book, is indeed an ideal helpmate.
A problem without a solution may interest the student, but can hardly fail to annoy the casual reader.
Come at once if convenient—if inconvenient come all the same.
