The Adventure at Baskerville Hall & Other Cases

head resting against the back of the chair and sending up a silent prayer for deliverance to any higher power that might be listening, that I completely failed to take in the information. Hardly had he finished than there was a clatter and a rattle in the street below as a carriage drew to a halt outside 221B.
    With no escape possible now, I hastened to place myself by the fire, hoping that the warmth would remedy my pallor. Seeking reassurance, I repeated to myself yet again that while it was true that I had a more than platonic interest in Holmes, Milverton's words could only be but idle threats as no document existed to furnish him with the proof. Holmes rose stiffly to meet our guest as he entered and placed his overcoat on the chair, and Milverton's ever-present smile broadened with delight as he saw that we were both at home.
    "This gentleman?" he asked me archly. "Is it discreet? Is it right?"
    My tongue clove to the roof of my mouth as he addressed me so openly, but fortunately Holmes replied, making one of his rare mistakes as to which gentleman was indicated.
    "Dr. Watson is my friend and partner," he replied coldly.
    Out of his view, I could not prevent a wince. Holmes had always presented me as such but here and now, before this man, I could have wished that he had chosen any other combination of words.
    Milverton's smile widened again to almost a smirk as he noted my reaction.
    "Very good, Mr. Holmes."
    The discussion moved on to negotiations regarding Lady Eva Blackwell's situation, at which point I rather lost the thread of the conversation. The seriousness of my own situation had only burst upon me in the last half hour, with all the sudden terribleness of a tropical storm, and I still was rather preoccupied by it. However, I was vaguely aware that Holmes's voice was growing more and more agitated, and I came back to myself in time to hear Milverton all but taunting him.
    "Mr. Holmes, an exposure would profit me indirectly to a considerable extent. I have eight or ten similar cases maturing. If it was circulated among them that I had made a severe example of the Lady Eva I should find all of them much more open to reason. You see my point?" His eyes rested on me as he posed the question, and I was almost mad with terror for an instant. Surely now it was inconceivable that Holmes should fail to divine the situation, but I had underestimated his anger and mortification. He leaped to his feet.
    "Get behind him, Watson! Don't let him out! Now, sir, let us see the contents of that note-book."
    I was only too ready to comply, but Milverton glided as quick as a rat to the side of the room.
    "Mr. Holmes, Mr. Holmes," he said, turning the front of his coat and exhibiting the butt of a large revolver, which projected from the inside pocket. "I had been expecting you to do something original. This has been done so often, and what good has ever come from it? I assure you that I am armed to the teeth, and I am perfectly prepared to use my weapons, knowing that the law will support me. Besides, your supposition that I would bring the letters here in a note-book is entirely mistaken. I would do nothing so foolish. And now, gentlemen, I have one or two little interviews this evening, and it is a long drive to Hampstead."
    He stepped forward, took up his overcoat, laid his hand on his revolver, and turned to the door. By this point I was so desperate that I blindly picked up a chair, conscious of nothing except that he could not be allowed to leave. This fiend had threatened to ruin not only me but worse still, the man I loved, who had done nothing wrong save be his own brilliant, inestimable self. Catching my eye, Holmes shook his head and I laid it down, striving to calm myself.
    When his hand was on the doorknob, Milverton turned back to us.
    "Perhaps Dr. Watson would be so good as to see me to my carriage?"
    Though it made me feel slightly ill, I had no choice but to agree, and accompany him down the stairs and out into the street.
    My nervous breath came in great clouds in the frosty air, and the flickering light of the gas lamps falling on Milverton's face gave him the air of the Evil One himself, as Holmes had already termed him.
    "I trust we understand one another now, Dr. Watson."
    "I understand that you are a bully, and are determined to ruin an innocent woman's life in order to line your own pockets," I retorted hotly. "I clearly underestimated the depth of your malice on our first meeting. But on my own