He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through
the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which
widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad balustraded
bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly beneath us. Beyond
lay another dull wilderness of bricks and mortar, its silence
broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of the policeman, or the
songs and shouts of some belated party of revellers. A dull wrack
was drifting slowly across the sky, and a star or two twinkled
dimly here and there through the rifts of the clouds. Holmes drove
in silence, with his head sunk upon his breast, and the air of a
man who is lost in thought, while I sat beside him, curious to
learn what this new quest might be which seemed to tax his powers
so sorely,
