The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

t any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect re

y adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lense

ing from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in following out those clews, and clearing up those mysteries which had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time to time I heard some vague account o

et, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his che

with a kindly eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and

hink, Watson, that you have put on sev

!" I a

e more, I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe.

ow do yo

e been getting yourself very wet lately, and that

at I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you dedu

and rubbed his long,

the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a gentleman walks into my rooms smelli

remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each success

armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For examp

quen

oft

e hundreds

w many a

y? I don

By-the-way, since you are interested in these little problems, and since you are good enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you may be interes