I had never crept into our cozy sitting room so reluctantly, with such dread inside me.
We'd been out all day; the fire was dead and the gas was quite off.
The feeble streetlamps trickled a murky light through the window shutters, but it was so dark…so dark…
There was a click behind me and I whirled, breath snagging in my throat. A hand grasped my shoulder and another covered my mouth.
"I was only shutting the door, Watson, get a hold of yourself," Holmes whispered sternly. "On no account can we afford to lose our nerve. It's only begun."