No, indeed, I answered brusquely.

My constitution has not got over the Afghan campaign yet.

I cannot afford to throw any extra strain upon it.

He smiled at my vehemence. Perhaps you are right, Watson, he said.

I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one.

I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment.

But consider! I said earnestly. Count the cost!

Your brain may, as you say, be roused and excited, but it is a pathological and morbid process which involves increased tissue-change and may at least leave a permanent weakness.

You know, too, what a black reaction comes upon you.

Surely the game is hardly worth the candle.