If I had never touched Holmes, who has tended to obscure my higher work, my position in literature would at the present moment be a more commanding one.

The sky was of the deepest blue, with a few white, fleecy clouds drifting lazily across it, and the air was filled with the low drone of insects or with a sudden sharper note as bee or bluefly shot past with its quivering, long-drawn hum, like an insect tuning-fork.

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.

When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities.

Data!data!data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay.

If I had never touched Holmes, who has tended to obscure my higher work, my position in literature would at the present moment be a more commanding one.

I suppose I shall have to compound a felony as usual.