Picture Dictionary & Books : Free for English Learner!

I tell you, my friend, that if a detailed account of that silent contest could be written, it would take its place as the most brilliant bit of thrust-and-parry work in the history of detection.

Never have I risen to such a height, and never have I been so hard pressed by an opponent.

He cut deep, and yet I just undercut him.

This morning the last steps were taken, and three days only were wanted to complete the business.

I was sitting in my room thinking the matter over, when the door opened and Professor Moriarty stood before me.

"My nerves are fairly proof, Watson, but I must confess to a start when I saw the very man who had been so much in my thoughts standing there on my threshhold.

His appearance was quite familiar to me.

He is extremely tall and thin, his forehead domes out in a white curve, and his two eyes are deeply sunken in his head.

He is clean-shaven, pale, and ascetic-looking, retaining something of the professor in his features.

His shoulders are rounded from much study, and his face protrudes forward, and is forever slowly oscillating from side to side in a curiously reptilian fashion.

He peered at me with great curiosity in his puckered eyes.

"'You have less frontal development than I should have expected,' said he, at last. 'It is a dangerous habit to finger loaded firearms in the pocket of one's dressing-gown.'

"The fact is that upon his entrance I had instantly recognized the extreme personal danger in which I lay.

The only conceivable escape for him lay in silencing my tongue.

In an instant I had slipped the revolver from the drawer into my pocket, and was covering him through the cloth.

At his remark I drew the weapon out and laid it cocked upon the table.

He still smiled and blinked, but there was something about his eyes which made me feel very glad that I had it there.

"'You evidently don't know me,' said he.

"'On the contrary,' I answered, 'I think it is fairly evident that I do. Pray take a chair. I can spare you five minutes if you have anything to say.'

"'All that I have to say has already crossed your mind,' said he.

"'Then possibly my answer has crossed yours,' I replied.

"'You stand fast?'

"'Absolutely.'

"He clapped his hand into his pocket, and I raised the pistol from the table. But he merely drew out a memorandum-book in which he had scribbled some dates.

"'You crossed my path on the 4th of January,' said he.

Table of Contents