The Adventure at Baskerville Hall & Other Cases

So tall was he that his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.
    "Which of you is Holmes?" asked the looming figure.
    "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my companion quietly. I was not fooled by Holmes's restrained tone. I had seen him in a fight, and knew that his quiet way of sizing up an opponent was far more effective than any amount of bluster.
    "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran."
    "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat."
    "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I have traced her. What has she been saying to you?"
    "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. I bit my lip and tried not to smirk.
    "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man furiously.
    "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my companion imperturbably. I coughed quickly, to smother my laughter. To say that Holmes had little interest in pastoral affairs was an understatement, and Holmes glanced at me with an amused quirk to his lips.
    "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler."
    My friend smiled.
    "Holmes, the busybody!"
    His smile broadened.
    "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!"
    Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught."
    "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here!" He stepped swiftly forward, making me start from my chair in an instinctive attempt to protect my friend – though I well knew that he required no such thing from me. However, he only seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.
    "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled and, hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace, he strode out of the room.
    "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, straightened it out again.
    I was abruptly reminded of being seven years old, climbing to the top of the apple tree in our garden to pick the biggest, most perfect fruit I could find for the girl next door, with whom I was in love. For in that moment, Holmes reminded me so much of a boy showing off to impress the object of his affections that I almost laughed before I managed to check myself, knowing that he would think I was mocking him. However, I could not quite manage to conceal all of my fond amusement, for he set the implement back in the rack with a clatter and turned away, flustered and self-conscious as a cat that has just been wrong-footed.
    There were no words I knew that would convey to him how unnecessary it was for him to try to impress me. I knew he was self-conscious about my past, that I had a greater number of former lovers than he, that I had travelled extensively overseas and served in the Army, that I was too experienced to want someone for whom the physical would always be secondary. He would never admit it, but I was convinced that Holmes sought, on some level, to demonstrate that he was my equal. I did not require proof of such a proposition; he was, and still is, the most captivating man of my considerable acquaintance, but telling him so would never suffice.
    "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force!" he said, trying to cover up his discomfiture. "This incident gives zest to our investigation, however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may help us in this matter."
    I readily agreed to his suggestion of breakfast and by the time Mrs.