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Stockbroker’s Clerk",6778,{"n":30,"title":222,"words":223},"The “Gloria Scott”",7841,{"n":34,"title":225,"words":226},"The Musgrave Ritual",7550,{"n":38,"title":228,"words":229},"The Reigate Squires",7164,{"n":42,"title":231,"words":232},"The Crooked Man",7114,{"n":46,"title":234,"words":235},"The Resident Patient",6433,{"n":50,"title":237,"words":238},"The Greek Interpreter",6995,{"n":54,"title":240,"words":241},"The Naval Treaty",12600,{"n":58,"title":243,"words":244},"The Final Problem",7150,{"slug":246,"title":247,"author":9,"year":248,"unit":11,"words":249,"chapters":250},"the-return-of-sherlock-holmes","The Return of Sherlock Holmes",1905,111951,[251,254,257,260,263,266,269,272,275,278,281,284,287],{"n":4,"title":252,"words":253},"The Adventure of the Empty House",8682,{"n":18,"title":255,"words":256},"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder",9207,{"n":22,"title":258,"words":259},"The Adventure of the Dancing Men",9624,{"n":26,"title":261,"words":262},"The Adventure of the Solitary 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Last",{"slug":506,"title":507,"author":508,"year":509,"unit":65,"words":510,"chapters":511},"alices-adventures-in-wonderland","Alice's Adventures in Wonderland","Lewis Carroll",1865,26371,[512,515,518,521,524,527,530,533,536,539,542,545],{"n":4,"title":513,"words":514},"Down the Rabbit-Hole",2181,{"n":18,"title":516,"words":517},"The Pool of Tears",2093,{"n":22,"title":519,"words":520},"A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale",1694,{"n":26,"title":522,"words":523},"The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill",2607,{"n":30,"title":525,"words":526},"Advice from a Caterpillar",2180,{"n":34,"title":528,"words":529},"Pig and Pepper",2588,{"n":38,"title":531,"words":532},"A Mad Tea-Party",2282,{"n":42,"title":534,"words":535},"The Queen’s Croquet-Ground",2482,{"n":46,"title":537,"words":538},"The Mock Turtle’s Story",2266,{"n":50,"title":540,"words":541},"The Lobster Quadrille",2025,{"n":54,"title":543,"words":544},"Who Stole the Tarts?",1872,{"n":58,"title":546,"words":547},"Alice’s Evidence",2101,{"slug":549,"title":550,"author":551,"year":552,"unit":553,"words":554,"chapters":555},"a-christmas-carol","A Christmas Carol","Charles Dickens",1843,"Stave",28402,[556,559,562,565,568],{"n":4,"title":557,"words":558},"Marley's Ghost",6414,{"n":18,"title":560,"words":561},"The First of the Three Spirits",6149,{"n":22,"title":563,"words":564},"The Second of the Three Spirits",8199,{"n":26,"title":566,"words":567},"The Last of the Spirits",5348,{"n":30,"title":569,"words":570},"The End of It",2292,{"slug":572,"title":573,"author":574,"year":575,"unit":65,"words":576,"chapters":577},"the-time-machine","The Time Machine","H. G. Wells",1895,32311,[578,581,584,587,590,593,596,599,602,605,608,611,614,617,620,623],{"n":4,"title":579,"words":580},"Introduction",1680,{"n":18,"title":582,"words":583},"The Machine",1335,{"n":22,"title":585,"words":586},"The Time Traveller Returns",1983,{"n":26,"title":588,"words":589},"Time Travelling",2086,{"n":30,"title":591,"words":592},"In the Golden Age",1653,{"n":34,"title":594,"words":595},"The Sunset of Mankind",2183,{"n":38,"title":597,"words":598},"A Sudden Shock",2321,{"n":42,"title":600,"words":601},"Explanation",4181,{"n":46,"title":603,"words":604},"The Morlocks",2154,{"n":50,"title":606,"words":607},"When Night Came",2519,{"n":54,"title":609,"words":610},"The Palace of Green Porcelain",2465,{"n":58,"title":612,"words":613},"In the Darkness",2638,{"n":105,"title":615,"words":616},"The Trap of the White Sphinx",1066,{"n":109,"title":618,"words":619},"The Further Vision",1900,{"n":112,"title":621,"words":622},"The Time Traveller’s Return",480,{"n":343,"title":624,"words":625},"After the Story",1667,{"slug":627,"title":628,"author":629,"year":630,"unit":65,"words":631,"chapters":632},"around-the-world-in-eighty-days","Around the World in Eighty Days","Jules Verne",1873,62197,[633,636,639,642,645,648,651,654,657,660,663,666,669,672,675,678,681,684,687,690,693,696,699,701,704,707,710,713,716,719,722,725,728,731,734,738,742],{"n":4,"title":634,"words":635},"In Which Phileas Fogg and Passepartout Accept Each Other, the One as Master, the Other as Man",1453,{"n":18,"title":637,"words":638},"In Which Passepartout is Convinced That He Has at Last Found His Ideal",1114,{"n":22,"title":640,"words":641},"In Which a Conversation Takes Place Which Seems Likely to Cost Phileas Fogg Dear",1991,{"n":26,"title":643,"words":644},"In Which Phileas Fogg Astounds Passepartout, His Servant",942,{"n":30,"title":646,"words":647},"In Which a New Species of Funds, Unknown to the Moneyed Men, Appears on ’change",932,{"n":34,"title":649,"words":650},"In Which Fix, the Detective, Betrays a Very Natural Impatience",1299,{"n":38,"title":652,"words":653},"Which Once More Demonstrates the Uselessness of Passports as Aids to Detectives",763,{"n":42,"title":655,"words":656},"In Which Passepartout Talks Rather More, Perhaps, Than is Prudent",1076,{"n":46,"title":658,"words":659},"In Which the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean Prove Propitious to the Designs of Phileas Fogg",1544,{"n":50,"title":661,"words":662},"In Which Passepartout is Only Too Glad to Get Off with the Loss of His Shoes",1552,{"n":54,"title":664,"words":665},"In Which Phileas Fogg Secures a Curious Means of Conveyance at a Fabulous Price",2530,{"n":58,"title":667,"words":668},"In Which Phileas Fogg and His Companions Venture Across the Indian Forests, and What Ensued",2083,{"n":105,"title":670,"words":671},"In Which Passepartout Receives a New Proof That Fortune Favors the Brave",2035,{"n":109,"title":673,"words":674},"In Which Phileas Fogg Descends the Whole Length of the Beautiful Valley of the Ganges Without Ever Thinking of Seeing It",1917,{"n":112,"title":676,"words":677},"In Which the Bag of Banknotes Disgorges Some Thousands of Pounds More",1829,{"n":343,"title":679,"words":680},"In Which Fix Does Not Seem to Understand in the Least What is Said to Him",1609,{"n":347,"title":682,"words":683},"Showing What Happened on the Voyage from Singapore to Hong Kong",1718,{"n":351,"title":685,"words":686},"In Which Phileas Fogg, Passepartout, and Fix Go Each About His Business",1340,{"n":355,"title":688,"words":689},"In Which Passepartout Takes a Too Great Interest in His Master, and What Comes of It",2060,{"n":359,"title":691,"words":692},"In Which Fix Comes Face to Face with Phileas Fogg",1740,{"n":363,"title":694,"words":695},"In Which the Master of the “tankadere” Runs Great Risk of Losing a Reward of Two Hundred Pounds",2563,{"n":367,"title":697,"words":698},"In Which Passepartout Finds Out That, Even at the Antipodes, It is Convenient to Have Some Money in One’s Pocket",2064,{"n":371,"title":700,"words":426},"In Which Passepartout’s Nose Becomes Outrageously Long",{"n":375,"title":702,"words":703},"During Which Mr. Fogg and Party Cross the Pacific Ocean",1948,{"n":379,"title":705,"words":706},"In Which a Slight Glimpse is Had of San Francisco",2002,{"n":383,"title":708,"words":709},"In Which Phileas Fogg and Party Travel by the Pacific Railroad",1605,{"n":387,"title":711,"words":712},"In Which Passepartout Undergoes, at a Speed of Twenty Miles an Hour, a Course of Mormon History",1944,{"n":479,"title":714,"words":715},"In Which Passepartout Does Not Succeed in Making Anybody Listen to Reason",2442,{"n":483,"title":717,"words":718},"In Which Certain Incidents Are Narrated Which Are Only to Be Met with on American Railroads",2124,{"n":487,"title":720,"words":721},"In Which Phileas Fogg Simply Does His Duty",2132,{"n":491,"title":723,"words":724},"In Which Fix, the Detective, Considerably Furthers the Interests of Phileas Fogg",1842,{"n":495,"title":726,"words":727},"In Which Phileas Fogg Engages in a Direct Struggle with Bad Fortune",1050,{"n":499,"title":729,"words":730},"In Which Phileas Fogg Shows Himself Equal to the Occasion",2479,{"n":503,"title":732,"words":733},"In Which Phileas Fogg at Last Reaches London",975,{"n":735,"title":736,"words":737},35,"In Which Phileas Fogg Does Not Have to Repeat His Orders to Passepartout Twice",1573,{"n":739,"title":740,"words":741},36,"In Which Phileas Fogg’s Name is Once More at a Premium on ’change",1057,{"n":743,"title":744,"words":745},37,"In Which It is Shown That Phileas Fogg Gained Nothing by His Tour Around the World, Unless It Were Happiness",938,{"n":18,"title":124,"passages":747,"rows":852,"words":125},[748,754,762,772,785,793,800,815,826,840],{"i":38,"prompt":749,"paras":750,"emb":752},"A sturdy man with a mustache and a tall thin man unpack boxes and trunks in a bright Victorian sitting room with two broad windows.",[751],"We met next day as he had arranged, and inspected the rooms at No. 221B, Baker Street, of which he had spoken at our meeting. They consisted of a couple of comfortable bed-rooms and a single large airy sitting-room, cheerfully furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows. So desirable in every way were the apartments, and so moderate did the terms seem when divided between us, that the bargain was concluded upon the spot, and we at once entered into possession. That very evening I moved my things round from the hotel, and on the following morning Sherlock Holmes followed me with several boxes and portmanteaus. For a day or two we were busily employed in unpacking and laying out our property to the best advantage. That done, we gradually began to settle down and to accommodate ourselves to our new surroundings.",[753,499],0,{"i":42,"prompt":755,"paras":756,"emb":760},"A tall thin man with a hooked nose lies motionless on a sofa in a Victorian sitting room, staring at the ceiling, while a sturdy man watches from an armchair.",[757,758,759],"Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with. He was quiet in his ways, and his habits were regular. It was rare for him to be up after ten at night, and he had invariably breakfasted and gone out before I rose in the morning. Sometimes he spent his day at the chemical laboratory, sometimes in the dissecting-rooms, and occasionally in long walks, which appeared to take him into the lowest portions of the City. Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him; but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting-room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night. On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes, that I might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic, had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion.","As the weeks went by, my interest in him and my curiosity as to his aims in life, gradually deepened and increased. His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of determination. His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch, as I frequently had occasion to observe when I watched him manipulating his fragile philosophical instruments.","The reader may set me down as a hopeless busybody, when I confess how much this man stimulated my curiosity, and how often I endeavoured to break through the reticence which he showed on all that concerned himself. Before pronouncing judgment, however, be it remembered, how objectless was my life, and how little there was to engage my attention. My health forbade me from venturing out unless the weather was exceptionally genial, and I had no friends who would call upon me and break the monotony of my daily existence. Under these circumstances, I eagerly hailed the little mystery which hung around my companion, and spent much of my time in endeavouring to unravel it.",[499,761],41,{"i":46,"prompt":763,"paras":764,"emb":770},"A tall thin man taps his forehead while explaining to a surprised sturdy mustached man seated across from him in a Victorian sitting room.",[765,766,767,768,769],"He was not studying medicine. He had himself, in reply to a question, confirmed Stamford’s opinion upon that point. Neither did he appear to have pursued any course of reading which might fit him for a degree in science or any other recognized portal which would give him an entrance into the learned world. Yet his zeal for certain studies was remarkable, and within eccentric limits his knowledge was so extraordinarily ample and minute that his observations have fairly astounded me. Surely no man would work so hard or attain such precise information unless he had some definite end in view. Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning. No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.","His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.","“You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.”","“To forget it!”","“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”",[771,495],74,{"i":50,"prompt":773,"paras":774,"emb":782},"A tall thin man leans back in an armchair with closed eyes, scraping a violin laid across his knee, while a sturdy mustached man listens with a patient frown.",[775,776,777,778,779,780,781],"“But the Solar System!” I protested.","“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently; “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”","I was on the point of asking him what that work might be, but something in his manner showed me that the question would be an unwelcome one. I pondered over our short conversation, however, and endeavoured to draw my deductions from it. He said that he would acquire no knowledge which did not bear upon his object. Therefore all the knowledge which he possessed was such as would be useful to him. I enumerated in my own mind all the various points upon which he had shown me that he was exceptionally well-informed. I even took a pencil and jotted them down. I could not help smiling at the document when I had completed it. It ran in this way—","SHERLOCK HOLMES—his limits.","1. Knowledge of Literature.—Nil. 2. Philosophy.—Nil. 3. Astronomy.—Nil. 4. Politics.—Feeble. 5. Botany.—Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening. 6. Geology.—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them. 7. Chemistry.—Profound. 8. Anatomy.—Accurate, but unsystematic. 9. Sensational Literature.—Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century. 10. Plays the violin well. 11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman. 12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.","When I had got so far in my list I threw it into the fire in despair. “If I can only find what the fellow is driving at by reconciling all these accomplishments, and discovering a calling which needs them all,” I said to myself, “I may as well give up the attempt at once.”","I see that I have alluded above to his powers upon the violin. These were very remarkable, but as eccentric as all his other accomplishments. That he could play pieces, and difficult pieces, I knew well, because at my request he has played me some of Mendelssohn’s Lieder, and other favourites. When left to himself, however, he would seldom produce any music or attempt any recognized air. Leaning back in his arm-chair of an evening, he would close his eyes and scrape carelessly at the fiddle which was thrown across his knee. Sometimes the chords were sonorous and melancholy. Occasionally they were fantastic and cheerful. Clearly they reflected the thoughts which possessed him, but whether the music aided those thoughts, or whether the playing was simply the result of a whim or fancy was more than I could determine. I might have rebelled against these exasperating solos had it not been that he usually terminated them by playing in quick succession a whole series of my favourite airs as a slight compensation for the trial upon my patience.",[783,784],106,43,{"i":54,"prompt":786,"paras":787,"emb":790},"A railway porter in uniform, a fashionable young woman and a small rat-faced man in a bowler hat sit waiting on chairs in a Victorian sitting room.",[788,789],"During the first week or so we had no callers, and I had begun to think that my companion was as friendless a man as I was myself. Presently, however, I found that he had many acquaintances, and those in the most different classes of society. There was one little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow who was introduced to me as Mr. Lestrade, and who came three or four times in a single week. One morning a young girl called, fashionably dressed, and stayed for half an hour or more. The same afternoon brought a grey-headed, seedy visitor, looking like a Jew pedlar, who appeared to me to be much excited, and who was closely followed by a slip-shod elderly woman. On another occasion an old white-haired gentleman had an interview with my companion; and on another a railway porter in his velveteen uniform. When any of these nondescript individuals put in an appearance, Sherlock Holmes used to beg for the use of the sitting-room, and I would retire to my bed-room. He always apologized to me for putting me to this inconvenience. “I have to use this room as a place of business,” he said, “and these people are my clients.” Again I had an opportunity of asking him a point blank question, and again my delicacy prevented me from forcing another man to confide in me. I imagined at the time that he had some strong reason for not alluding to it, but he soon dispelled the idea by coming round to the subject of his own accord.","It was upon the 4th of March, as I have good reason to remember, that I rose somewhat earlier than usual, and found that Sherlock Holmes had not yet finished his breakfast. The landlady had become so accustomed to my late habits that my place had not been laid nor my coffee prepared. With the unreasonable petulance of mankind I rang the bell and gave a curt intimation that I was ready. Then I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it.",[791,792],149,40,{"i":58,"prompt":794,"paras":795,"emb":798},"A sturdy mustached man reads a magazine at a breakfast table in a Victorian sitting room while a tall thin man silently eats toast.",[796,797],"Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life,” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deductions appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man’s inmost thoughts. Deceit, according to him, was an impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.","“From a drop of water,” said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study nor, is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the enquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems. Let him, on meeting a fellow-mortal, learn at a glance to distinguish the history of the man, and the trade or profession to which he belongs. Puerile as such an exercise may seem, it sharpens the faculties of observation, and teaches one where to look and what to look for. By a man’s finger nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boot, by his trouser knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt cuffs—by each of these things a man’s calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent enquirer in any case is almost inconceivable.”",[799,739],189,{"i":105,"prompt":801,"paras":802,"emb":813},"A sturdy mustached man points an egg spoon indignantly at an open magazine on the breakfast table while a tall thin man watches calmly.",[803,804,805,806,807,808,809,810,811,812],"“What ineffable twaddle!” I cried, slapping the magazine down on the table, “I never read such rubbish in my life.”","“What is it?” asked Sherlock Holmes.","“Why, this article,” I said, pointing at it with my egg spoon as I sat down to my breakfast. “I see that you have read it since you have marked it. I don’t deny that it is smartly written. It irritates me though. It is evidently the theory of some arm-chair lounger who evolves all these neat little paradoxes in the seclusion of his own study. It is not practical. I should like to see him clapped down in a third class carriage on the Underground, and asked to give the trades of all his fellow-travellers. I would lay a thousand to one against him.”","“You would lose your money,” Sherlock Holmes remarked calmly. “As for the article, I wrote it myself.”","“You!”","“Yes, I have a turn both for observation and for deduction. The theories which I have expressed there, and which appear to you to be so chimerical are really extremely practical—so practical that I depend upon them for my bread and cheese.”","“And how?” I asked involuntarily.","“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I’m a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of Government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay all the evidence before me, and I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime, to set them straight. There is a strong family resemblance about misdeeds, and if you have all the details of a thousand at your finger ends, it is odd if you can’t unravel the thousand and first. Lestrade is a well-known detective. He got himself into a fog recently over a forgery case, and that was what brought him here.”","“And these other people?”","“They are mostly sent on by private inquiry agencies. They are all people who are in trouble about something, and want a little enlightening. I listen to their story, they listen to my comments, and then I pocket my fee.”",[814,499],225,{"i":109,"prompt":816,"paras":817,"emb":824},"A tall thin man with a hooked nose lights a pipe beside a window in a Victorian sitting room while a sturdy mustached man seated nearby smiles at him.",[818,819,820,821,822,823],"“But do you mean to say,” I said, “that without leaving your room you can unravel some knot which other men can make nothing of, although they have seen every detail for themselves?”","“Quite so. I have a kind of intuition that way. Now and again a case turns up which is a little more complex. Then I have to bustle about and see things with my own eyes. You see I have a lot of special knowledge which I apply to the problem, and which facilitates matters wonderfully. Those rules of deduction laid down in that article which aroused your scorn, are invaluable to me in practical work. Observation with me is second nature. You appeared to be surprised when I told you, on our first meeting, that you had come from Afghanistan.”","“You were told, no doubt.”","“Nothing of the sort. I _knew_ you came from Afghanistan. From long habit the train of thoughts ran so swiftly through my mind, that I arrived at the conclusion without being conscious of intermediate steps. There were such steps, however. The train of reasoning ran, ‘Here is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor, then. He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair. He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his haggard face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural manner. Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.’ The whole train of thought did not occupy a second. I then remarked that you came from Afghanistan, and you were astonished.”","“It is simple enough as you explain it,” I said, smiling. “You remind me of Edgar Allen Poe’s Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories.”","Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. “No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin,” he observed. “Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends’ thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour’s silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine.”",[825,792],258,{"i":112,"prompt":827,"paras":828,"emb":838},"A sturdy mustached man stands at a window looking down at a street where a stout plainly dressed man with a large blue envelope checks the house numbers.",[829,830,831,832,833,834,835,836,837],"“Have you read Gaboriau’s works?” I asked. “Does Lecoq come up to your idea of a detective?”","Sherlock Holmes sniffed sardonically. “Lecoq was a miserable bungler,” he said, in an angry voice; “he had only one thing to recommend him, and that was his energy. That book made me positively ill. The question was how to identify an unknown prisoner. I could have done it in twenty-four hours. Lecoq took six months or so. It might be made a text-book for detectives to teach them what to avoid.”","I felt rather indignant at having two characters whom I had admired treated in this cavalier style. I walked over to the window, and stood looking out into the busy street. “This fellow may be very clever,” I said to myself, “but he is certainly very conceited.”","“There are no crimes and no criminals in these days,” he said, querulously. “What is the use of having brains in our profession. I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous. No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done. And what is the result? There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it.”","I was still annoyed at his bumptious style of conversation. I thought it best to change the topic.","“I wonder what that fellow is looking for?” I asked, pointing to a stalwart, plainly-dressed individual who was walking slowly down the other side of the street, looking anxiously at the numbers. He had a large blue envelope in his hand, and was evidently the bearer of a message.","“You mean the retired sergeant of Marines,” said Sherlock Holmes.","“Brag and bounce!” thought I to myself. “He knows that I cannot verify his guess.”","The thought had hardly passed through my mind when the man whom we were watching caught sight of the number on our door, and ran rapidly across the roadway. We heard a loud knock, a deep voice below, and heavy steps ascending the stair.",[839,792],298,{"i":343,"prompt":841,"paras":842,"emb":849},"A stout stiff-backed man with side whiskers and a plain coat salutes in a doorway while handing a letter to a tall thin man in a Victorian sitting room.",[843,844,845,846,847,848],"“For Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” he said, stepping into the room and handing my friend the letter.","Here was an opportunity of taking the conceit out of him. He little thought of this when he made that random shot. “May I ask, my lad,” I said, in the blandest voice, “what your trade may be?”","“Commissionaire, sir,” he said, gruffly. “Uniform away for repairs.”","“And you were?” I asked, with a slightly malicious glance at my companion.","“A sergeant, sir, Royal Marine Light Infantry, sir. No answer? Right, sir.”","He clicked his heels together, raised his hand in a salute, and was gone.",[850,851],338,46,384,1793453959462]