Mr Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, except on those quite frequent occasions when he did not go to bed all night, was sitting at the breakfast table. I was standing in front of the fire, and I picked up the walking stick which our visitor had left behind the night before. It was a fine, thick stick. Round it was a broad silver band, nearly an inch wide. ‘To James Mortimer, from his friends of the C.C.H.’ was written upon it, with the date 1884. It was just the kind of stick that an old-fashioned doctor often carried.
“Well, Watson, what do you think of it? There is its owner, who is ringing the doorbell. Now is the moment of fate, Watson, when you hear on the stairs a step which is walking into your life, whether for good or for evil. What does Doctor James Mortimer ask from Sherlock Holmes? Come in!”

Otto-Classics Graded Readers Series are outstanding classics written by famous writers. The language and vocabulary in the books are controlled and simplified by specialist ELT authors and compilers according to Common European Framework so that they can be easily understood by new learners of English. 
Depending on the eight levels from A1 to B2+, the longer stories are divided into a number of chapters and every chapter has its own activities. Some of the activities in the books are meant to be done in pairs. You may work with a partner to solve problems and design projects that reflect not only your own thinking but also new ideas you and your mates will discover by working in groups.