“ ‘Have you any suggestion to make?’ I asked.
“ ‘You must drop it, Mr. Holmes,’ said he, swaying his face about. ‘You really must, you know.’
“ ‘After Monday,’ said I.
“ ‘Tut, tut!’ said he. ‘I am quite sure that a man of your intelligence will see that there can be but one outcome to this affair. It is necessary that you should withdraw. You have worked things in such a fashion that we have only one resource left. It has been an intellectual treat to me to see the way in which you have grappled with this affair, and I say, unaffectedly, that it would be a grief to me to be forced to take any extreme measure. You smile, sir, but I assure you that it really would.
“ ‘Danger is part of my trade,’ I remarked.
“ ‘This is not danger,’ said he. ‘It is inevitable destruction. You stand in th
