Sooner or later they
believed that I should come back to my rooms. They watched them
continuously, and this morning they saw me arrive."
"How do you know?"
"Because I recognised their sentinel when I glanced out of my
window. He is a harmless enough fellow, Parker by name,
a garroter by trade, and a remarkable performer upon the Jew's
harp. I cared nothing for him. But I cared a great deal for
the much more formidable person who was behind him, the bosom
friend of Moriarty, the man who dropped the rocks over the cliff,
the most cunning and dangerous criminal in London. That is the
man who is after me to-night, Watson, and that is the man who is
quite unaware that we are after HIM."
My friend's plans were gradually revealing themselves.
From this convenient retreat the watchers were being watched and
the trackers tracked. That angular shadow up yonder was the bait
and we were the hunters. In silence we stood together in the
darkness and watched the hurrying figures who passed and
repassed in front of us. Holmes was silent and motionless;
but I could tell that he was keenly alert, and that his eyes were
fixed intently upon the stream of passers-by.
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