freely with no pain. What happened? With the exception of his headache and the profound darkness, everything seemed more or less normal. Almost everything. Langdon realized he was lying on a hard floor that felt unusually smooth, like a sheet of glass. Stranger still, he could feel that the slick surface was in direct contact with his bare flesh . . . shoulders, back, buttocks, thighs, calves. Am I naked? Puzzled, he ran his hands over his body. Jesus! Where the hell are my clothes? In the darkness, the cobwebs began to lift, and Langdon saw flashes of memory . . . frightening sna ray ban website pshots . . . a dead CIA agent . . . the face of a ray ban website tattooed beast . . . Langdons head smashing into the floor. The images came faster . . . and now he recalled the sickening image of Katherine Solomon bound and
for a word? Langdon had to admit it sounded absurd at face value, and yet it answered a lot of questions. Look, Im no specialist in ceremonial magic, he said, but from the documents on his basement walls . . . and from Katherines description of the untattooed flesh on his head . . . Id say hes hoping to find the Lost Word and inscribe it on his body. Sato moved the group toward the dining room. Outside, the helicopter was warming up, its blades thund ray ban website ering louder and louder. Langdon kept talking, thinking aloud. If this guy truly believes he is about to unlock the power of the Ancient Mysteries, no symbol would be more potent in his mind than the Los ray ban website t Word. If he could find it and inscribe it on the top of his heada sacred location in itselfthen he would no doubt consider himself perfectly
Theres a railing. Grasp it. Langdon groped in the darkness and found an iron railing. Now watch. He could hear Peter fumbling with something, and suddenly a blazing flashlight beam pierced the darkness. It was pointed at the floor, and before Langdon could take in his surroundings, Solomon directed the flashlight out over the railing and pointed ray ban website the beam straight down. Langdon was suddenly staring into a bottomless shaft . . . an endless winding staircase that plunged deep into the earth. My God! His knees nearly buckled, and h ray ban website e gripped the railing for support. The staircase was a traditional square spiral, and he could see at least thirty landings descending into the earth before the flashlight faded to nothing. I cant even see the bottom! Peter . . . he stammered. What is this place! Ill
was at a loss to know why. There have been cases before now where trainers have made sure ray ban website of great sums of money by laying against their own horses, through agents, and then preventing them from winning by fraud. Sometimes it is a pulling jockey. Sometimes it is some surer and subtler means. What was it here? I hoped that the contents of his pockets might help me to form a conclusion. And they did so. You cannot have forgotten the singular knife which was found in the dead mans hand, a knife which certainly no sane man would choose for a ray ban website weapon. It was, as Dr. Watson told us, a form of knife which is used for the most delicate operations known in surgery. And it was to be used for a delicate operation that night. You must know, with your wide experience of turf matters, Colonel Ross, that
fire in a snow-storm. I was glad, then, to find that he was my neighbour, and gladder still when, in the dead of the night, I heard a whisper close to my ear, and found that he had managed to cut an opening in the board which separated us. Hullo, chummy! said he, whats your name, and what are you here for? I answered him, and asked in turn who I was ta ray ban website lking with. Im Jack Prendergast, said he, and by God! Youll learn to bless my name before youve done with me. I remembered hearing of his case, for it was one which had made an immense sensation throughout the country some time before my own arrest. He was a man o ray ban website f good family and of great ability, but on incurably vicious habits, who had be an ingenious system of fraud obtained huge sums of money from the leading London merchants. Ha, ha!
naturally the strongest suspicion rested, was removed to her room, still in a state of insensibility. The Colonels body was then placed upon the sofa, and a careful examination made of the scene of the tragedy. The injury from which the unfortunate veteran was suffering was found to be a jagged cut some two inches long at the back part of his head, which had evidently been caused by a violent blow from a blunt weapon. Nor was it difficult to guess what that weapon may have been. Upon the floor, close to the body, was lying a singular club of hard carved wood with a bone handle. The Colonel possessed a varied collection of weapons brou ray ban website ght from the different countries in which he had fought, and it is conjectured by the police that his club ray ban website was among his trophies. The servants deny having
use writing of the details of that dreadful event. In the event of your acceding to my request it is probably that I shall have to narrate them to you. I have only just recovered from nine weeks of brain-fever, and am still exceedingly weak. Do you think that you could bring your friend Mr. Holmes down to see me? I should like to have his opinion of the case, though the authorities assure me that nothing more can be done. Do try to bring him down, ray ban website and as soon as possible. Every minute seems an hour while I live in this state of horrible suspense. Assur ray ban website e him that if I have not asked his advice sooner it was not because I did not appreciate his talents, but because I have been off my head ever since the blow fell. Now I am clear again, though I dare not think of it too much for fear of a
oclock. To catch that one, he would have to go in a mad rush. The ray ban website sample collection wasnt packed up yet, and he really didnt feel particularly fresh and active. And even if he caught the train, there was no avoiding a blow-up with the boss, because the firms errand boy wouldve waited for the five oclock train and re ray ban website ported the news of his absence long ago. He was the bosss minion, without backbone or intelligence. Well then, what if he reported in sick? But that would be extremely embarrassing and suspicious, because during his five years service Gregor hadnt been sick even once. The boss would certainly come with the doctor from the health insurance company and would reproach his parents for their lazy son and cut short all objections with the insurance doctors comments; for him everyone