From my boyhood I have had an intense and overwhelming conviction that my real vocation lay in the direction of literature. I have, however, had a most unaccountable difficulty in getting any responsible person to share my views. It is true that private friends have sometimes, after listening to my effusions, gone the length of […]
Strange it is and wonderful to mark how upon this planet of ours the smallest and most insignificant of events set a train of consequences in motion which act and react until their final results are portentous and incalculable. Set a force rolling, however small; and who can say where it shall end, or what
All aboard?” said the captain. “All aboard, sir!” said the mate. “Then stand by to let her go.” It was nine o’clock on a Wednesday morning. The good ship Spartan was lying off Boston Quay with her cargo under hatches, her passengers shipped, and everything prepared for a start. The warning whistle had been sounded
On the fourth day of March, in the year 1867, being at that time in my five-and-twentieth year, I wrote down the following words in my note-book — the result of much mental perturbation and conflict: — “The solar system, amidst a countless number of other systems as large as itself, rolls ever silently through
Of all the sciences which have puzzled the sons of men, none had such an attraction for the learned Professor von Baumgarten as those which relate to psychology and the ill-defined relations between mind and matter. A celebrated anatomist, a profound chemist, and one of the first physiologists in Europe, it was a relief for
In the month of December in the year 1873, the British ship Dei Gratia steered into Gibraltar, having in tow the derelict brigantine Marie Celeste, which had been picked up in latitude 38o 40′, longitude 17o 15′ W. There were several circumstances in connection with the condition and appearance of this abandoned vessel which excited
[Being an extract from the singular journal of JOHN M’ALISTER RAY, student of medicine.] September 11th. — Lat. 81° 40′ N.; long. 2° E. Still lying-to amid enormous ice fields. The one which stretches away to the north of us, and to which our ice-anchor is attached, cannot be smaller than an English county. To
To my friend major-general A. W. Drayson as a slight token of my admiration for his great and as yet unrecognised services to astronomy this little volume is dedicated Preface For the use of some of the following Tales I am indebted to the courtesy of the Proprietors of “Cornhill”, “Temple Bar”, “Belgravia”, “London Society”,
A very patient man was that inspector in the cab, for it was a weary time before I rejoined him. His face clouded over when I showed him the empty box. “There goes the reward!” said he gloomily. “Where there is no money there is no pay. This night’s work would have been worth a
The Sign of Four – Chapter 12: The Strange Story of Jonathan Small Read More »
Our captive sat in the cabin opposite to the iron box which he had done so much and waited so long to gain. He was a sunburned reckless-eyed fellow, with a network of lines and wrinkles all over his mahogany features, which told of a hard, open-air life. There was a singular prominence about his
The Sign of Four – Chapter 11: The Great Agra Treasure Read More »
