Oct 14, 2026 · 44 min · 19 segments
A brilliant young scholar found dead in his study with his throat slashed, holding a single, vital clue clutched in his hand: a pair of golden eye-glasses. On this sophisticated installment of…
Or does he have something to hide? We passed down the passage, which was of the same length as that which led to the garden.
At the end was a short flight of steps ending in a door.
[knocking] Our guide knocked and then ushered us into the professor's bedroom.
[footsteps] It was a very large chamber lined with innumerable volumes which had overflowed from the shelves and lay in piles in the corners or were stacked all round at the base of the cases.
The bed was in the center of the room, and in it, propped up with pillows, was the owner of the house.
[pensive music] I have seldom seen a more remarkable-looking person.
It was a gaunt, aquiline face which was turned towards us, with piercing dark eyes which lurked in deep hollows under overhung and tufted brows.
His hair and beard were white, save that the latter was curiously stained with yellow around his mouth.
A cigarette glowed amid the tangle of white hair, and the air of the room was fetid with stale tobacco smoke.
As he held out his hand to Holmes, I perceived that it also was stained yellow with nicotine.
"A smoker, Mr. Holmes," said he, speaking well-chosen English with a curious little mincing accent.
"Pray, take a cigarette.
And you, sir, I can recommend them, for I have them especially prepared by Ionides of Alexandria.
He sends me a thousand at a time, and I grieve to say that I have to arrange for a fresh supply every fortnight.
Bad, sir, very bad, but an old man has few pleasures.
Tobacco and my work, that is all that is left to me." Holmes had lit a cigarette and was shooting little darting glances all over the room.
"Tobacco and my work, but now only tobacco," the old man exclaimed.
"Alas, what a fatal interruption.
Who could have foreseen such a terrible catastrophe? So estimable a young man.
I assure you that after a few months' training he was an admirable assistant.
What do you think of the matter, Mr. Holmes?" "I have not yet made up my mind." "I shall indeed be indebted to you if you can throw a light where all is so dark to us.
To a poor bookworm and invalid like myself, such a blow is paralyzing.
I seem to have lost the faculty of thought.
But you are a man of action.
You are a man of affairs.
Or does he have something to hide? We passed down the passage, which was of the same length as that which led to the garden.
At the end was a short flight of steps ending in a door.
[knocking] Our guide knocked and then ushered us into the professor's bedroom.
[footsteps] It was a very large chamber lined with innumerable volumes which had overflowed from the shelves and lay in piles in the corners or were stacked all round at the base of the cases.
The bed was in the center of the room, and in it, propped up with pillows, was the owner of the house.
[pensive music] I have seldom seen a more remarkable-looking person.
It was a gaunt, aquiline face which was turned towards us, with piercing dark eyes which lurked in deep hollows under overhung and tufted brows.
His hair and beard were white, save that the latter was curiously stained with yellow around his mouth.
A cigarette glowed amid the tangle of white hair, and the air of the room was fetid with stale tobacco smoke.
As he held out his hand to Holmes, I perceived that it also was stained yellow with nicotine.
"A smoker, Mr. Holmes," said he, speaking well-chosen English with a curious little mincing accent.
"Pray, take a cigarette.
And you, sir, I can recommend them, for I have them especially prepared by Ionides of Alexandria.
He sends me a thousand at a time, and I grieve to say that I have to arrange for a fresh supply every fortnight.
Bad, sir, very bad, but an old man has few pleasures.
Tobacco and my work, that is all that is left to me." Holmes had lit a cigarette and was shooting little darting glances all over the room.
"Tobacco and my work, but now only tobacco," the old man exclaimed.
"Alas, what a fatal interruption.
Who could have foreseen such a terrible catastrophe? So estimable a young man.
I assure you that after a few months' training he was an admirable assistant.
What do you think of the matter, Mr. Holmes?" "I have not yet made up my mind." "I shall indeed be indebted to you if you can throw a light where all is so dark to us.
To a poor bookworm and invalid like myself, such a blow is paralyzing.
I seem to have lost the faculty of thought.
But you are a man of action.
You are a man of affairs.
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