The Complete Novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Arthur Conan Doyle

poor Douglas. They tell me his name is Edwards; but he will always be Jack Douglas of Benito Canyon to me. I told you that they started together for South Africa in the Palmyra three weeks ago."

      "Exactly."

      "The ship reached Cape Town last night. I received this cable from Mrs Douglas this morning:—

      "Jack has been lost overboard in gale off St Helena. No one knows how accident occurred.—Ivy Douglas."

      "Ha! It came like that, did it?" said Holmes, thoughtfully. "Well, I've no doubt it was well stage-managed."

      "You mean that you think there was no accident?"

      "None in the world."

      "He was murdered?"

      "Surely!"

      "So I think also. These infernal Scowrers, this cursed vindictive nest of criminals—"

      "No, no, my good sir," said Holmes. "There is a master hand here. It is no case of sawed-off shot-guns and clumsy six-shooters. You can tell an old master by the sweep of his brush. I can tell a Moriarty when I see one. This crime is from London, not from America."

      "But for what motive?"

      "Because it is done by a man who cannot afford to fail—one whose whole unique position depends upon the fact that all he does must succeed. A great brain and a huge organization have been turned to the extinction of one man. It is crushing the nut with the hammer—an absurd extravagance of energy—but the nut is very effectually crushed all the same."

      "How came this man to have anything to do with it?"

      "I can only say that the first word that ever came to us of the business was from one of his lieutenants. These Americans were well advised. Having an English job to do, they took into partnership, as any foreign criminal could do, this great consultant in crime. From that moment their man was doomed. At first he would content himself by using his machinery in order to find their victim. Then he would indicate how the matter might be treated. Finally, when he read in the reports of the failure of this agent, he would step in himself with a master touch. You heard me warn this man at Birlstone Manor House that the coming danger was greater than the past. Was I right?"

      Barker beat his head with his clenched fist in his impotent anger.

      "Do you tell me that we have to sit down under this? Do you say that no one can ever get level with this king-devil?"

      "No, I don't say that," said Holmes, and his eyes seemed to be looking far into the future. "I don't say that he can't be beat. But you must give me time—you must give me time!"

      We all sat in silence for some minutes, while those fateful eyes still strained to pierce the veil.

      Professor Challenger Novels

       Table of Contents

      The Lost World

       Table of Contents

      I have wrought my simple plan

       If I give one hour of joy

       To the boy who’s half a man,

       Or the man who’s half a boy.

Table of Contents

       Foreword

       Chapter I. “There Are Heroisms All Round Us”

       Chapter II. “Try Your Luck with Professor Challenger”

       Chapter III. “He is a Perfectly Impossible Person”

       Chapter IV. “It’s Just the very Biggest Thing in the World”

       Chapter V. “Question!”

       Chapter VI. “I was the Flail of the Lord”

       Chapter VII. “To-morrow we Disappear into the Unknown”

       Chapter VIII. “The Outlying Pickets of the New World”

       Chapter IX. “Who could have Foreseen it?”

       Chapter X. “The most Wonderful Things have Happened”

       Chapter XI. “For once I was the Hero”

       Chapter XII. “It was Dreadful in the Forest”

       Chapter XIII. “A Sight which I shall Never Forget”

       Chapter XIV. “Those Were the Real Conquests”

       Chapter XV. “Our Eyes have seen Great Wonders”

       Chapter XVI. “A Procession! A Procession!”

      Foreword

       Table of Contents

      Mr. E. D. Malone desires to state that both the injunction for restraint and the libel action have been withdrawn unreservedly by Professor G. E. Challenger, who, being satisfied that no criticism or comment in this book is meant in an offensive spirit, has guaranteed that he will place no impediment to its publication and circulation.

      Chapter I.

       “There Are Heroisms All Round Us”

       Table of Contents

      Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth,— a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own silly self. If anything could have driven me from Gladys, it would have been the thought of such a father-inlaw. I am convinced that he really believed in his heart that I came round to the Chestnuts three days a week for the pleasure of his company, and very especially to hear his views upon bimetallism, a subject upon which he was by way of being an authority.

      For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous chirrup about bad money driving out good, the token value of silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the true standards of exchange.

      “Suppose,” he cried with feeble violence, “that