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Sherlock Holmes took his bottle froe froers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff For sohtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arh of satisfaction

Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it On the contrary, froht, and ht that I had lacked the courage to protest Again and again I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject, but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made hi approaching to a liberty His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, allhim

Yet upon that afternoon, whether it was the Beaune which I had taken with my lunch, or the additional exasperation produced by the extreme deliberation of his er

"Which is it to-day?" I asked,--"uidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened "It is cocaine," he said,--"a seven-per-cent solution Would you care to try it?"

"No, indeed," I answered, brusquely "My constitution has not got over the Afghan can yet I cannot afford to throw any extra strain upon it"

He sht, Watson," he said "I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one I find it, however, so transcendently sti to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment"

"But consider!" I said, earnestly "Count the cost! Your brain ical and e and may at last leave a permanent weakness You know, too, what a black reaction coame is hardly worth the candle Why should you, for a reat pohich you have been endowed? Remember that I speak not only as one comrade to another, but as a medical man to one for whose constitution he is to some extent answerable"