50819    He was still, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries, which had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police.

50820    From time to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland.

50821    Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of my former friend and companion.

50822    One night - it was on the 20th of March, 1888 - I was returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street.

50823    As I passed the well remembered door, which must always be associated in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers.

50824    His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw his tall spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind.

50825    He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his chest, and his hands clasped behind him.

50826    To me, who knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their own story.

50827    He was at work again.

50828    He had risen out of his drug-created dreams, and was hot upon the scent of some new problem.

50829    I rang the bell, and was shown up to the chamber which had formerly been in part my own.

50830    His manner was not effusive.

50831    It seldom was; but he was glad, I think, to see me.

50832    With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly eye, he waved me to an arm-chair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner.

50833    Then he stood before the fire, and looked me over in his singular introspective fashion.