You cannot see the lettuce and the dressing without suspecting a salad.

Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs.

All right, Watson. Don’t look so scared,” he muttered in a very weak voice. “It’s not as bad as it seems.” “Thank God for that!” “I’m a bit of a single-stick expert, as you know. I took most of them on my guard. It was the second man that was too much for me.” “What can I do, Holmes? Of course, it was that damned fellow who set them on. I’ll go and thrash the hide off him if you give the word.” “Good old Watson!(...)

The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.

It is horrible, yet fascinating, this struggle between a set purpose and an utterly exhausted frame.

Still, it is an error to argue in front of your data. You find yourself insensibly twisting them round to fit your theories.

When people bury treasure nowadays they do it in the Post-Office bank.