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“ No, William; morality, piety, the better feelings of the community would, with one accord, rebel against so hideous and shocking an expedient nay, it would not do at all. I have told you that the surplus population are required to be smashed and torn to death by explosives, and cut to pieces with swords, and so forth. Pray, do not make such dreadful suggestions again! This city increases its population with incredible rapidity; is, in fact, the envy of the world, and is always pointed to as a model. ”

“ No violinist has travelled more than he; he has played in every important city in Europe and America, and is well known to London audiences. His distinguishing characteristics are not so much fire, force, and passion, though of these he has an ample store, as purity of style, charm, flexibility, and extraordinary facility. He sings on his instrument with the utmost feeling and expression, and without any of the affectation which robs the playing of many violinists of all charm. ”

“ Whose loot is this, if it is not ours? Where is the justice that I should give it up to those who have never earned it? Look how I have earned it! Twenty long years in that fever-ridden swamp, all day at work under the mangrove-tree, all night chained up in the filthy convict-huts, bitten by mosquitoes, racked with ague, bullied by every cursed black-faced policeman who loved to take it out of a white man. That was how I earned the Agra treasure ”

“ Bill didn't trouble about the train, but rushed for the fragments of the box.
Weep, O mountains of Adirondack! Howl, O mighty catawampus of the prairie! There lay the box without a mark! A little longer, and perhaps a little flatter, Bill fancied, but then Bill's mind was a bit disordered, you see.
Then Bill Erie's heroism came out strong.
"A mighty conqueror cannot survive a defeat," he said. "I have hitherto been conqueror among the destroyers of trunks. I will die, but my enemy shall perish with me." ”

“ Thaddeus Sholto looked about him in a perplexed and helpless manner. “This is too bad of you, McMurdo!" he said. “If I guarantee them, that is enough for you. There is the young lady, too. She cannot wait on the public road at this hour.”
“Very sorry, Mr. Thaddeus,” said the porter inexorably “Folk may be friends o’ yours, and yet no friends o’ the master’s. He pays me well to do my duty, and my duty I’ll do. I don’t know none o’ your friends.”
“Oh, yes, you do, McMurdo,” cried Sherlock Holmes, genially. ”

“ And it came to pass that, after a while, those that wrote puffs in the newspapers became so filled with a sense of the affability of him of the bright eye, that when they sat at their desks a-writing puffs for the newspapers, they would say within themselves: "As he is so affable, it stands to reason that the work of his hand must be very good and clever." ”

“ Even in the little stories which we have adapted there are manifested many of the characteristics in which Dumas never had a superior—the never-flagging spirit of the narrative, the dramatic situations, the air of nature, and the colour of romance. ”

“ You have no cause for uneasiness.”
“You will excuse my anxiety, Miss Morstan,” he remarked, airily. “I am a great sufferer, and I have long had suspicions as to that valve. I am delighted to hear that they are unwarranted. Had your father, Miss Morstan, refrained from throwing a strain upon his heart, he might have been alive now.”
I could have struck the man across the face, so hot was I at this callous and off-hand reference to so delicate a matter. Miss Morstan sat down, and her face grew white to the lips. “I knew in my heart that he was dead,” said she. ”

“ Then the Public began to inquire, saying "Who is he that has the bright and knowing eye, and what is his name?" For, when one would go about speaking of the greatness of a person, it is better that one should know his name; for, if one does not know his name, then one must needs identify him in some other way, such as saying "He who wrote so and so," or, "He that drew such a picture"; the which thing is awkward when one knows nothing of his works, but only knows that he is a great man. ”

“ The Indian treasure, the curious plan found among Morstan’s baggage, the strange scene at Major Sholto’s death, the rediscovery of the treasure immediately followed by the murder of the discoverer, the very singular accompaniments to the crime, the footsteps, the remarkable weapons, the words upon the card, corresponding with those upon Captain Morstan’s chart, —here was indeed a labyrinth in which a man less singularly endowed than my fellow-lodger might well despair of ever finding the clue. ”

“ And why should mere Talent take part of the profits that rightly belong to Push?" And he straightway went and turned out poor old Talent from the business, taking away his jam and his new boots—nay, even his bread which he had brought into the firm; and Mr. Push went on producing work on his own account; and the critics, and those whose duty it is to write the puffs for the newspapers (which two classes are by some considered to be identical) , cried out louder than ever about his greatness, and told how he parted his hair, and how much mustard he ate, and what sort of hats he wore. ”

“ As he spoke, the steps which had been coming nearer sounded loudly on the passage, and a very stout, portly man in a gray suit strode heavily into the room. He was red-faced, burly and plethoric, with a pair of very small twinkling eyes which looked keenly out from between swollen and puffy pouches. He was closely followed by an inspector in uniform, and by the still palpitating Thaddeus Sholto.
“Here’s a business!” he cried, in a muffled, husky voice. "Here’s a pretty business! But who are all these? Why, the house seems to be as full as a rabbit-warren!” ”

“ From New York to Toronto, and from the Niagara Falls to Cleveland, all good railway men revere the memory of Bill Erie.
The trunk did not break in the terrible fall that killed poor Bill. After his death, the secret came out. You see, Sam Slutters, the next best trunk-smasher on the line (who was a mean skunk, for all his good qualities) had a great jealousy of Bill. So he just put that box in his way after he had filled it tight full with sandwiches and buns from an English railway refreshment room, and riveted the sides firmly to the adamantine contents. ”

“ We can tell the tale to you while we await them. Do you stand at the gate, Mahomet Singh, and give notice of their coming. The thing stands thus, Sahib, and tell it to you because I know that an oath is binding upon a Feringhee, and that we may trust you. Had you been a lying Hindoo, though you had sworn by all the gods in their false temples, your blood would have been upon the knife, and your body in the water. But the Sikh knows the Englishman, and the Englishman knows the Sikh. ”

“ There are many societies for the protection of children; and human Governments are very severe upon violence to children. You see—er—if an infant is killed it is—er—disqualified for being subsequently slaughtered on the field of battle.
"Infanticide is regarded as a most heartless crime. You now perceive that that group of legislators are glaring at an adjacent island containing another nation, and are shrieking with anger and envy! That is because that insular nation has so many more babies, and increases so much more rapidly in population." ”

“ We could see a tall old woman admit him, and sway with pleasure at the very sight of him.
“Oh, Mr. Thaddeus, sir, I am so glad you have come! I am so glad you have come, Mr. Thaddeus, sir!” We heard her reiterated rejoicings until the door was closed and her voice died away into a muffled monotone.
Our guide had left us the lantern. Holmes swung it slowly round, and peered keenly at the house, and at the great rubbish-heaps which cumbered the grounds. Miss Morstan and I stood together, and her hand was in mine. ”

“ These are new workhouses to receive the increment of population, which will, of course, be unable to find a means of livelihood. That parish is the champion parish of that great city—a guiding star for all the parishes in the world. The paupers in it—two-thirds of the entire population—have just been put on half rations in consequence of the increasing strain on the parish resources; but those paupers are wise enough to perceive that increase of population is the greatest boon, the highest aim, of a community ”

“ I would rather swing a score of times, or have one of Tonga’s darts in my hide, than live in a convict’s cell and feel that another man is at his ease in a palace with the money that should be mine.” Small had dropped his mask of stoicism, and all this came out in a wild whirl of words, while his eyes blazed, and the handcuffs clanked together with the impassioned movement of his hands. ”

“ As I exhibited the empty box he leaned back in his chair and laughed aloud.
“This is your doing, Small,” said Athelney Jones, angrily.
“Yes, I have put it away where you shall never lay hand upon it,” he cried, exultantly. “It is my treasure; and if I can’t have the loot I’ll take darned good care that no one else does. I tell you that no living man has any right to it, unless it is three men who are in the Andaman convict-barracks and myself. I know now that I cannot have the use of it, and I know that they cannot. I have acted all through for them as much as for myself. ”

“ You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician. But do I see a handkerchief? Surely there is a white flutter over yonder.”
“Yes, it is your boy,” I cried. “I can see him plainly.”
“And there is the Aurora,” exclaimed Holmes, “and going like the devil! Full speed ahead, engineer. Make after that launch with the yellow light. By heaven, I shall never forgive myself if she proves to have the heels of us!” ”

“ Like all human kind, they flitted from the gloom into the light, and so back into the gloom once more. I am not subject to impressions, but the dull, heavy evening, with the strange business upon which we were engaged combined to make me nervous and depressed. I could see from Miss Morstan’s manner that she was suffering from the same feeling. Holmes alone could rise superior to petty influences. ”