The Sign of the Four

by Arthur Conan Doyle

Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth."

Viewing the matter as an abstract problem, I had forgotten how personal and painful a thing it might be to you.

A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two, who had never seen each other before that day, between whom no word or even look of affection had ever passed, and yet now in an hour of trouble our hands instinctively sought for each other. I have marvelled 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 comfort and 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.

"We all need help sometimes,"

Whoever had lost a treasure, I knew that night that I had gained one.