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Page 138
"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. 'On the 23d you incommoded me; by the middle of
February I was seriously inconvenienced by you; at the
end of March I was absolutely hampered in my plans;
and now, at the close of April, I find myself placed
in such a position through your continual persecution
that I am in positive danger of losing my liberty.
The situation is becoming an impossible one.'
"'Have you any suggestion to make?' I asked.
"'You must drop it, Mr. Holmes,' said he, swaying his
face about. 'You really must, you know.'
"'After Monday,' said I.
"'Tut, tut,' said he. 'I am quite sure that a man of
your intelligence will see that there can be but one
outcome to this affair. It is necessary that you
should withdraw. You have worked things in such a
fashion that we have only one resource left. It has been
an intellectual treat to me to see the way in which
you have grappled with this affair, and I say,
unaffectedly, that it would be a grief to me to be
forced to take any extreme measure. You smile, sir,
but I assure you that it really would.'
"'Danger is part of my trade,' I remarked.
"'That is not danger,' said he. 'It is inevitable
destruction. You stand in the way not merely of an
individual, but of a mighty organization, the full
extent of which you, with all your cleverness, have
been unable to realize. You must stand clear, Mr.
Holmes, or be trodden under foot.'
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