hadvqlloyd

that a minister

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:31:00Z

We will suppose
that a minister needs information as to a point which involves
the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic question; he could get
his separate advices from various departments upon each, but only
Mycroft can focus them all, and say offhand how each factor would
affect the other.

he conclusions of every

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:30:00Z

The same great
powers which I have turned to the detection of crime he has used
for this particular business. The conclusions of every
department are passed to him, and he is the central exchange, the
clearinghouse, which makes out the balance. All other men are
specialists, but his specialism is omniscience.

nor will be again

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:29:00Z

But how?

Well, his position is unique. He has made it for himself.
There has never been anything like it before, nor will be again.
He has the tidiest and most orderly brain, with the greatest
capacity for storing facts, of any man living.

Mycroft draws four hundred

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:27:00Z

My dear Holmes!
I thought I might surprise you. Mycroft draws four hundred and
fifty pounds a year, remains a subordinate, has no ambitions of
any kind, will receive neither honour nor title, but remains the
most indispensable man in the country.

You are right

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:26:00Z

I did not know you quite so well in those days. One has to be
discreet when one talks of high matters of state. You are right
in thinking that he under the British government. You would also
be right in a sense if you said that occasionally he IS the
British government.

indeed! said I heartily

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:24:00Z

Suppose that I were Brooks or Woodhouse, or any of the fifty men
who have good reason for taking my life, how long could I survive
against my own pursuit? A summons, a bogus appointment, and all
would be over. It is well they don't have days of fog in the
Latin countries--the countries of assassination. By Jove! here
comes something at last to break our dead monotony.

Look out this window

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:22:00Z

The London criminal is certainly a dull fellow, said he in the
querulous voice of the sportsman whose game has failed him.
Look out this window, Watson. See how the figures loom up, are
dimly seen, and then blend once more into the cloud-bank. The
thief or the murderer could roam London on such a day as the
tiger does the jungle, unseen until he pounces, and then evident
only to his victim.

of suppressed energy

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:21:00Z

. He paced restlessly about our sitting-
room in a fever of suppressed energy, biting his nails, tapping
the furniture, and chafing against inaction.

The first day

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:19:00Z

Holmes had spent in cross-indexing his huge book of references.
The second and third had been patiently occupied upon a subject
which he hand recently made his hobby--the music of the Middle
Ages. But when, for the fourth time, after pushing back our
chairs from breakfast we saw the greasy, heavy brown swirl still
drifting past us and condensing in oily drops upon the window-
panes, my comrade's impatient and active nature could endure this
drab existence no longer.

In the third week of November

hadvqlloyd — 2009-07-05T17:07:00Z

In the third week of November, in the year 1895, a dense yellow
fog settled down upon London. From the Monday to the Thursday I
doubt whether it was ever possible from our windows in Baker
Street to see the loom of the opposite houses.