The Valley Of Fear Quotes
"I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; but I'll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption."
"Really, Holmes, you are a little trying at times."
"Porlock, Watson, is a nom-de-plume, a mere identification mark; but behind it lies a shifty and evasive personality."
"The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld."
"A touch! A distinct touch! You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson."
"But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come."
"The purport is perfectly clear. Some deviltry is intended against one Douglas."
"We pay the price, Watson, for being too up-to-date!"
"All knowledge comes useful to the detective."
"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius."
"The man has been branded at some time as they brand cattle. What is the meaning of this?"
"Seems to me the sooner we get London on to this case the better."
"I have worked with Mr. Holmes before, he plays the game."
"I claim the right to work in my own way and give my results at my own time."
"No confidences, Watson; for they are mighty awkward if it comes to an arrest for conspiracy and murder."
"Consider an athlete with one dumbbell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!"
"A lie, Watson—a great, big, thumping, obtrusive, uncompromising lie—that’s what meets us on the threshold!"
"How do I know that they are lying? Because it is a clumsy fabrication which simply could not be true."
"You may argue—but I have too much respect for your judgment, Watson, to think that you will do so."
"But the gunshot was apparently the cause of death. Therefore the shot must have been fired some time earlier than we are told."
"We are in the presence, therefore, of a deliberate conspiracy upon the part of the two people who heard the gunshot."
"She must be a heartless creature to sit laughing at some jest within a few hours of her husband’s murder."
"I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind, as you are aware, Watson, but my experience of life has taught me that there are few wives, having any regard for their husbands, who would let any man’s spoken word stand between them and that husband’s dead body."
"And once again, if the thought of leaving a bicycle concealed outside had occurred to you, would it really have seemed worth doing when the dullest detective would naturally say this is an obvious blind?"
"And yet there should be no combination of events for which the wit of man cannot conceive an explanation."
"How often is imagination the mother of truth?"
"It was a single-track railroad; but at every siding—and they were numerous—long lines of trucks piled with coal and iron ore told of the hidden wealth which had brought a rude population and a bustling life to this most desolate corner of the United States of America."
"Above the dark and often scarcely penetrable woods upon their flanks, the high, bare crowns of the mountains, white snow, and jagged rock towered upon each flank, leaving a long, winding, tortuous valley in the centre."
"It is easy to see that he is of a sociable and possibly simple disposition, anxious to be friendly to all men."
"I am one of the Eminent Order of Freemen. There's no town without a lodge, and where there is a lodge I'll find my friends."
"Everywhere there were stern signs of the crudest battle of life, the rude work to be done, and the rude, strong workers who did it."
"The young traveller gazed out into this dismal country with a face of mingled repulsion and interest, which showed that the scene was new to him."
"The greater number of these were workmen returning from their day’s toil in the lower part of the valley."
"I've lived among rough men, my darling, and instead of fearing them it has always ended that they have feared me—always, Ettie."
"Well, I know that I am safe in your hands. Look at that clipping."
"I’m not denying it. D’ye think I’m ashamed of my own name?"
"Well, I’ve given you the pointer, and you’re a sulky dog not to thank me for it."
"It’s mum with me so long as I see you living on the straight."
"He could drink hard and show little trace of it."
"I was an officer in Chicago before ever I came to this darned coal bunker, and I know a Chicago crook when I see one."
"The crime committed, they quarrelled as to who had actually struck the fatal blow."
"I am a good Catholic; but the priest would have no word with me when he heard I was a Scowrer."
"We are gradually driving all the small men out of trade."
"There’s no room for scabby sheep in our pen."
"Sure, I was thinking of other things, and when you came tripping so lightly on those fairy feet of yours—"
"We are but poor men that are trying in our own way to get our rights."
"It’s a dead earnest business proposition that’s out for results and keeps out till by hook or crook it gets them."
"What is murder? Isn’t it common enough in these parts?"
"There’s business here that wants a Solomon in judgment to set it right."
"I’m too deep in this thing, and I may have to get out of it quick."
"It was a large apartment, with a long deal table in the centre, and the big stove at one side."
"It’s not the will but the nerve that is wanting in me."
"He passes under the name of Steve Wilson, and he is lodging at Hobson’s Patch."
"He had nerves of steel, this man; for though the whole weight of the affair was on him his manner was as cool and unconcerned as ever."