"Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel piece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case."
-- The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
This is a pretty startling opener today; it must have been shocking at the time. Although, maybe not. Maybe cocaine wasn't illegal back then, so this would have been tantalizing, but not bear the freight it does today.
This is the second of the Sherlock Holmes books. I am reading them in order because I found a pretty little set at an estate sale last summer.
