It was evident that his astonishment was great. He was a portly man, and tall, about forty years old, and, after his fashion, handsome. He had well-formed features and a mobile smile; but his face was masterful — overmasterful, some thought; and his eyes were hard, when a sly look did not soften, without much improving, their expression.

Both cassowaries and emus are large, flightless, cursorial birds with diminutive wings. […] Emus, the world's second largest living birds, live in Australia and are the only extant member of the genus Dromaius.

We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers. . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.

He [sc. James Moriarty] is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city [sc. London]. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker.