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They watched them continuously, and this morning they saw me arrive."

"How do you know?"

"Because I recognised their sentinel when I glanced out of my window.

He is a harmless enough fellow, Parker by name, a garroter by trade, and a remarkable performer upon the Jew's harp.

I cared nothing for him.

But I cared a great deal for the much more formidable person who was behind him, the bosom friend of Moriarty, the man who dropped the rocks over the cliff, the most cunning and dangerous criminal in London.

That is the man who is after me to-night, Watson, and that is the man who is quite unaware that we are after him."

My friend's plans were gradually revealing themselves.

From this convenient retreat the watchers were being watched and the trackers tracked.

That angular shadow up yonder was the bait and we were the hunters.

In silence we stood together in the darkness and watched the hurrying figures who passed and repassed in front of us.

Holmes was silent and motionless; but I could tell that he was keenly alert, and that his eyes were fixed intently upon the stream of passers-by.

It was a bleak and boisterous night, and the wind whistled shrilly down the long street.

Many people were moving to and fro, most of them muffled in their coats and cravats.

Once or twice it seemed to me that I had seen the same figure before, and I especially noticed two men who appeared to be sheltering themselves from the wind in the doorway of a house some distance up the street.

I tried to draw my companion's attention to them, but he gave a little ejaculation of impatience and continued to stare into the street.

More than once he fidgeted with his feet and tapped rapidly with his fingers upon the wall.

It was evident to me that he was becoming uneasy and that his plans were not working out altogether as he had hoped.

At last, as midnight approached and the street gradually cleared, he paced up and down the room in uncontrollable agitation.

I was about to make some remark to him when I raised my eyes to the lighted window and again experienced almost as great a surprise as before.

I clutched Holmes's arm and pointed upwards.

"The shadow has moved!" I cried.

It was, indeed, no longer the profile, but the back, which was turned towards us.

Three years had certainly not smoothed the asperities of his temper or his impatience with a less active intelligence than his own.

"Of course it has moved," said he.

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