-S&D in The Valley of Fear

S&D in VALL:

After pushing away his untasted breakfast, SH lit the unsavoury pipe which was the companion of his deepest meditations.

In his early morning visit to 221B, Insp. MacDonald mentioned that a wee nip would keep out the raw morning chill.

H&W were having breakfast sitting in the inglenook of the old village inn. Holmes talked at random about the case, and finally lit his pipe.

After Douglas emerged from his hiding spot, he leaned against the mantelpiece and sucked at the cigar which Holmes had handed him.

Back in the USA, and on the train to Vermissa, miners sat smoking in a group.

In the bar of McGinty’s saloon the atmosphere was blurred with tobacco smoke and heavy with the smell of spirits, as several bartenders in their shirt sleeves were mixing drinks for the loungers who fringed the broad, brass-trimmed counter. At the far end, stood the famous McGinty himself, with a cigar stuck at an acute angle from the corner of his mouth.

Toasting McGinty, McMurdo raised a glass with which he had been served to his lips and elevated his little finger as he drank it.

With McMurdo and Baldwin present, McGinty took a bottle of champagne down from the shelf and twisted out the cork, and they drank the quarrelling toast of the lodge, ending the dispute.

One evening, Captain Marvin of the mine police enrolled himself among McGinty’s customers, and asked for a straight whisky, and drunk off his glass.

After the initiation, Brother Scanlan put liquor on the table, and the Lodge drank to McMurdo, their worthy brother. Later, at the general meeting, the whisky bottle had passed round many times.

One afternoon McGinty visited McMurdo as he sat smoking, lost in thought. McMurdo brought his whisky bottle out of the cupboard.

McMurdo spent a night in jail with some of the Scowrers, but late at night there came a jailer with two bottles of whisky, some glasses, and a pack of cards. They spent a hilarious night and got sprung in the morning.

Giving McMurdo instructions for a new job, McGinty took his eternal half-chewed, half-smoked cigar from the corner of his mouth.

For the trapping of Birdy Edwards, McMurdo placed whisky upon the table, and the Scowrers had hastened to prime themselves for the work before them. Some were already half-drunk.

Later, they had plenty of time to sober up. Some, more than others.