"From the point of view of the criminal expert," said Mr.

Sherlock Holmes, "London has become a singularly uninterest-

ing city since the death of the late lamented Professor Moriarty."

"I can hardly think that you would find many decent citizens

to agree with you," I answered.

"Well, well, I must not be selfish," said he, with a smile, as

he pushed back his chair from the breakfast-table. "The commu-

nity is certainly the gainer, and no one the loser, save the poor

out-of-work specialist, whose occupation has gone. With that

man in the field, one's morning paper presented infinite possibil-

ities. Often it was only the smallest trace, Watson, the faintest

indication, and yet it was enough to tell me that the great

malignant brain was there, as the gentlest tremors of the edges of

the web remind one of the foul spider which lurks in the centre.

Petty thefts, wanton assaults, purposeless outrage -- to the man

who held the clue all could be worked into one connected whole.

To the scientific student of the higher criminal world, no capital

in Europe offered the advantages which London then possessed.

But now --" He shrugged his shoulders in humorous deprecation

of the state of things which he had himself done so much to

produce.

Dowmload full story.