A silent witness

The history upon which I am now embarking abounds in incidents so amazing that, as I look back on them, a something approaching to scepticism contends with my vivid recollection...

I awoke on the following morning to a dim consciousness of something unusual, and, as my wits returned with the rapidity that is natural to the young and healthy, the surprising...

The winter session had commenced at the hospital, but at Hampstead the month of October had set in with something like a return to summer. It is true that the trees had lost som...

It was getting well on into November when I strolled one afternoon into the hospital museum, not with any specific object but rather vaguely in search of something to do. During...

A young and newly-qualified doctor, emerging for the first time into private practice, is apt to be somewhat surprised and disconcerted by the new conditions. Accustomed to the...

I awoke somewhat late on the following morning; indeed, I was but half awake when there came a somewhat masterful and peremptory tap at my bedroom door, followed by the appearan...

“Dear, dear,” commented Thorndyke, “what a terrible amount of time he must waste. Of course, one can understand now how that cremation muddle came about. Your incurable hustler...

London is a wonderful place. From the urban greyness of Jacob Street to the borders of Hampstead Heath was, even in those days of the slow horse tram, but a matter of minutes--a...

At my lodgings, which I reached at an unconscionably late hour for lunch, I found a little surprise awaiting me; a short note from Dr. Thorndyke asking me if I should be at libe...

Thorndyke’s warning, so emphatically expressed, ought to have been alike unnecessary and effective. As a matter of fact, it was neither. I suppose that to a young man, not natur...

Awakening in a strange place is always a memorable experience; especially to the young, in whom the capacity for novel sensations has not yet been exhausted by repetition. When...

As I stepped out on to the platform with a valedictory bow to my reverend fellow-passenger, my irresolution came to an end and my duty became clear. I must, in common decency, r...

On the following morning I betook myself to the hospital intending to call later in the day at Dr. Thorndyke’s chambers; but that visit turned out to be unnecessary, for, as I r...

If I had had any intention of avoiding Mrs. Samway, that intention must inevitably have been frustrated, for her recognition was as instantaneous as my own. Almost as I turned t...

My second visit to “The Hawthorns,” to which I had looked forward with some eagerness, had, after all, to be postponed indefinitely. I say “had,” since, under the circumstances,...

On the day following my--and Thorndyke’s--masterly retreat from Salter’s Club, the plain-clothes officer called to make his report; and even before he spoke, I judged from his r...

It was getting late when our friends left us, but nevertheless, as soon as they were gone, we all drew our chairs up to the fire with the obvious intention of discussing the sit...

As I pushed open the inner door and entered the room I conceived the momentary hope of a reprieve from the wrath to come, for I found my two friends in what was evidently a busi...

The resigned composure with which I accepted Thorndyke’s sentence of confinement within doors was not entirely attributable to discretion or native virtue. My resolution to foll...

The silence of the room remained unbroken for a quite considerable time after the two bearers had passed out with their dreadful burden. My two friends sat apart and, with a tac...

At exactly half-past eleven in the following forenoon, Professor Woodfield arrived, bearing a massive cowhide bag which he deposited on a chair as a preliminary to taking off hi...

When Professor Woodfield, having deliberately packed his bag and--to my great relief and Jervis’s--declined Thorndyke’s invitation to stay and take tea with us, presently took h...