46151 'No, my dear fellow, it is at the hour of action that I turn to you for aid.
46152 But this is splendid, really unique from some points of view.
46153 When you pass Bradley's, would you ask him to send up a pound of the strongest shag tobacco?
46154 Thank you.
46155 It would be as well if you could make it convenient not to return before evening.
46156 Then I should be very glad to compare impressions as to this most interesting problem which has been submitted to us this morning.'
46157 I knew that seclusion and solitude were very necessary for my friend in those hours of intense mental concentration during which he weighed every particle of evidence, constructed alternative theories, balanced one against the other, and made up his mind as to which points were essential and which immaterial.
46158 I therefore spent the day at my club, and did not return to Baker Street until evening.
46159 It was nearly nine o'clock when I found myself in the sitting-room once more.
46160 My first impression as I opened the door was that a fire had broken out, for the room was so filled with smoke that the light of the lamp upon the table was blurred by it.
46161 As I entered, however, my fears were set at rest, for it was the acrid fumes of strong, coarse tobacco, which took me by the throat and set me coughing.
46162 Through the haze I had a vague vision of Holmes in his dressing-gown coiled up in an arm-chair with his black clay pipe between his lips.