The Valley of Fear

Holmes

his singular composition, he was undoubtedly callous from long over-stimulation. Yet, if his emotions were dulled, his intellectual perceptions were exceedingly active. There was no trace then of the horr

" said he. "

t seem su

ter which I know to be important, warning me that danger threatens a certain person. Within an hour I learn that this d

about the letter and the cipher. MacDonald sat with his chin on h

o ask you if you cared to come with me-you and your friend here. But

hink not,"

ry in a day or two; but where's the mystery if there is a man in London who prophesied the crim

o you propose to lay your han

n Camberwell-that doesn't help us much. Name, you say, is assumed. Not

wi

d h

Camberwell

ouble to see who

N

surprised and a littl

ad promised when he first wrote t

ere is someon

w ther

that I've hear

act

lmes, that we think in the C. I. D. that you have a wee bit of a bee in your bonnet over this professor. I made

ot so far as to re

rn and a globe, and made it all clear in a minute. He lent me a book; but I don't mind saying that it was a bit above my head, though I had a good Aberdeen upbringing. He'd have made a grand meenister

"Great! Tell me, Friend MacDonald, this pleasing and tou

t's

room, is

handsome indee

ront of his w

st

es and his face

but I mind that the lam

pen to observe a picture

t from you. Yes, I saw the picture-a young woman wi

was by Jean B

ndeavoured to l

"was a French artist who flourished between the years 1750 and 1800. I allude, of course to his workin

rew abstracted. "Hadn'

ery direct and vital bearing upon what you have called the Birlstone

r me, Mr. Holmes. You leave out a link or two, and I can't get over the gap. What in the whol

1865 a picture by Greuze entitled La Jeune Fille a l'Agneau fetched one million two hundred thousand f

id. The inspector look

essor's salary can be ascertained in several trustwo

w could

o! How c

pector thoughtfully. "Talk away, Mr.

ine admiration-the characteristic of the re

door, and it won't take us twenty minutes to Victoria. But about this picture: I

never

you know abou

exts and leaving before he came. Once-well, I can hardly tell about the once to an official detective. It wa

something c

hows him to be a very wealthy man. How did he acquire wealth? He is unmarried. His younger brother is a

el

e inferenc

t income and that he must ea

vaguely up towards the centre of the web where the poisonous, motionless creature is lurking. I

n interesting-it's just wonderful. But let us have it a little clearer if

er read of J

don't take much stock of detectives in novels-chaps that do things and n

sn't in a novel. He was a master criminal, a

se to me. I'm a

comes in circles-even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild was the hidden force of the London criminals, to whom he sold his brains and his organization on a fifteen per cent com

erest me, r

fighting men, pickpockets, blackmailers, and card sharpers at the other, with every sort of crime in between. His chief of s

ike to

r gets. That gives you an idea of Moriarty's gains and of the scale on which he works. Another point: I made it my business to hunt down some of Moriarty's chec

! But what do you

as twenty banking accounts; the bulk of his fortune abroad in the Deutsche Bank or the Credit Lyonnais as li

ion proceeded. He had lost himself in his interest. Now his practical

ally counts is your remark that there is some connection between the professor and the crime. That you get from

e might be two different motives. In the first place, I may tell you that Moriarty rules with a rod of iron over his people. His discipline is tremendous. There is only one punishment in his code. It is death. Now we might suppose that

one suggestio

ered by Moriarty in the ordinary cour

e not

of part spoils, or he may have been paid so much down to manage it. Either is possible. But whichever it may be, or if it is some third combination,

his chair. "My word! it's later than I thought. I can give y

o change from his dressing gown to his coat. "While we are on our wa

ightened and rubbed his thin hands together as he listened to the meagre but remarkable details. A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us, and here at last there was a fit

of the problem which awaited us in Sussex. The inspector was himself dependent, as he explained to us, upon a scribbled account forwarded to him by the milk train in the early hours of the morning. White Mason, the local officer, wa

NALD [said the letter

it-or have it met if I am too occupied. This case is a snorter. Don't waste a moment in getting started. If you can bring Mr. Holmes, please do so; for he will find somet

s to be no fool,"

n is a very live man

e you anyt

give us every det

Douglas and the fact that h

n the head, from the discharge of a shotgun. It also mentioned the hour of the alarm, which was close on to midnight last night. It added that the case was undoubtedly one of murde

es upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession. I can see only two things for certain at prese