"It seems to me to have only one drawback, Hopkins, and that is that it is intrinsically impossible.Have you tried to drive a harpoon through a body? No? Tut, tut, my dear sir, you must really pay attention to these details.My friend Watson could tell you that I spent a whole morning in that exercise.
It is no easy matter, and requires a strong and practised arm.
But this blow was delivered with such violence that the head of the weapon sank deep into the wall.Do you imagine that this anaemic youth was capable of so frightful an assault? Is he the man who hobnobbed in rum and water with Black Peter in the dead of the night? Was it his profile that was seen on the blind two nights before? No, no, Hopkins; it is another and a more formidable person for whom we must seek."The detective's face had grown longer and longer during Holmes's speech.His hopes and his ambitions were all crumbling about him.
But he would not abandon his position without a struggle.
"You can't deny that Neligan was present that night, Mr.Holmes.
The book will prove that.I fancy that I have evidence enough to satisfy a jury, even if you are able to pick a hole in it.
Besides, Mr.Holmes, I have laid my hand upon MY man.As to this terrible person of yours, where is he?""I rather fancy that he is on the stair," said Holmes, serenely.
"I think, Watson, that you would do well to put that revolver where you can reach it." He rose, and laid a written paper upon a side-table."Now we are ready," said he.