Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage)

by Larry Millett

I experienced now that intense and thrilling sense of apprehension that comes to every soldier on the brink of battle. Insensible to the roaring wind, the loud swaying trees, the gorgeous moon hanging in the heavens, I saw or heard nothing except the two men coming at us out of the gloom. And though my heart beat wildly in my chest, I felt supremely prepared for whatever the next moment would bring, for I was in the company of the most fearless man it had ever been my privilege to know. I glanced over at Holmes as he crouched behind the bushes, his lethal cane at the ready, and what I saw was at once wonderful and frightening. His long, thin hair blew about wildly, while the moonlight cast crooked shadows across his sharply etched features. He looked, I thought, magnificently untamed, and I could appreciate now, more than ever before, his own frequent observation that had he not devoted his life to solving crimes he might well have busied himself committing them. All the fierce power of his being was now concentrated upon the task at hand, his every nerve and sinew taut with anticipation, like a tiger ready to spring remorselessly upon its prey.