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was in the spring of the year 1894 that all London was interested, and the fashionable
world dismayed. by the murder of the Honourable Ronald Adair under most unusual
and inexplicable circumstances. The public has already learned those particulars
of the crime which came out in the police investigation, but a good deal was suppressed
upon that occasion, since the case for the prosecution was so overwhelmingly strong
that it was not necessary to bring forward all the facts. Only now, at the end
of nearly ten years, am I allowed to supply those missing links which make up
the whole of that remarkable chain. The crime was of interest in itself, but that
interest was as nothing to me compared to the inconceivable sequel, which afforded
me the greatest shock and surprise of any event in my adventurous life. Even now,
after this long interval, I find myself thrilling as I think of it, and feeling
once more that sudden flood of joy, amazement, and incredulity which utterly submerged
my mind. Let me say to that public, which has shown some interest in those glimpses
which I have occasionally given them of the thoughts and actions of a very remarkable
man, that they are not to blame me if I have not shared my knowledge with them,
for I should have considered it my first duty to do so, had I not been barred
by a positive prohibition from his own lips, which was only withdrawn upon the
third of last month. It
can be imagined that my close intimacy with Sherlock Holmes had interested me
deeply in crime, and that after his disappearance I never failed to read with
care the various problems which came before the public. And I even attempted,
more than once, for my own private satisfaction, to employ his methods in their
solution, though with indifferent success. There was none, however, which appealed
to me like this tragedy of Ronald Adair. As I read the evidence at the inquest,
which led up to a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown,
I realized more clearly than I had ever done the loss which the community had
sustained by the death of Sherlock Holmes. There were points about this strange
business which would, I was sure, have specially appealed to him, and the efforts
of the police would have been supplemented, or more probably anticipated. by the
trained observation and the alert mind of the first criminal agent in Europe.
All day. as I drove upon my round, I turned over the case in my mind and found
no explanation which appeared to me to be adequate. At the risk of telling a twice-told
tale. I will recapitulate the facts as they were known to the public at the conclusion
of the inquest.
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