| It
is years since the incidents of which I speak took place, and yet it is with diffidence
that I allude to them. For a long time, even with the utmost discretion and reticence,
it would have been impossible to make the facts public, but now the principal
person concerned is beyond the reach of human law, and with due suppression the
story may be told in such fashion as to injure no one. It records an absolutely
unique experience in the career both of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and of myself. The
reader will excuse me if I conceal the date or any other fact by which he might
trace the actual occurrence. We
had been out for one of our evening rambles, Holmes and I, and had returned about
six o'clock on a cold, frosty winter's evening. As Holmes turned up the lamp the
light fell upon a card on the table. |
