The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Return of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle This text is provided to you “as-is” without any warranty. No warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, are made to you as to the text or any medium it may be on, including but not limited to warranties of merchantablity or fitness for a particular purpose. This text was formatted from various free ASCII and HTML variants. See http://sherlock-holm.esfor an electronic form of this text and additional information about it. Pictures for “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” were taken from a 1915 edition of “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. This text comes from the collection’s version 3.1. Table of contents The Adventure of the Empty House . 1 The Adventure of the Norwood Builder . 13 The Adventure of the Dancing Men . 27 The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist . 41 The Adventure of the Priory School . 53 The Adventure of Black Peter . 69 The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton . 81 The Adventure of the Six Napoleons. 91 The Adventure of the Three Students . 103 The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez . 113 The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter . 127 The Adventure of the Abbey Grange . 139 The Adventure of the Second Stain . 153 iii The Adventure of the Empty House The Adventure of the Empty House t was in the spring of the year 1894 that all The Honourable Ronald Adair was the second son London was interested, and the fashionable of the Earl of Maynooth, at that time Governor of world dismayed, by the murder of the Hon- one of the Australian Colonies. Adair’s mother had I ourable Ronald Adair under most unusual returned from Australia to undergo the operation for and inexplicable circumstances. The public has al- cataract, and she, her son Ronald, and her daughter ready learned those particulars of the crime which Hilda were living together at 427, Park Lane. The came out in the police investigation; but a good deal youth moved in the best society, had, so far as was was suppressed upon that occasion, since the case for known, no enemies, and no particular vices. He had the prosecution was so overwhelmingly strong that it been engaged to Miss Edith Woodley, of Carstairs, was not necessary to bring forward all the facts. Only but the engagement had been broken off by mutual now, at the end of nearly ten years, am I allowed to consent some months before, and there was no sign supply those missing links which make up the whole that it had left any very profound feeling behind it. of that remarkable chain. The crime was of interest For the rest the man’s life moved in a narrow and in itself, but that interest was as nothing to me com- conventional circle, for his habits were quiet and his pared to the inconceivable sequel, which afforded me nature unemotional. Yet it was upon this easy-going the greatest shock and surprise of any event in my young aristocrat that death came in most strange and adventurous life. Even now, after this long interval, I unexpected form between the hours of ten and eleven- find myself thrilling as I think of it, and feeling once twenty on the night of March 30, 1894. more that sudden flood of joy, amazement, and in- Ronald Adair was fond of cards, playing continu- credulity which utterly submerged my mind. Let me ally, but never for such stakes as would hurt him. He say to that public which has shown some interest in was a member of the Baldwin, the Cavendish, and the those glimpses which I have occasionally given them Bagatelle card clubs. It was shown that after dinner of the thoughts and actions of a very remarkable man on the day of his death he had played a rubber of that they are not to blame me if I have not shared my whist at the latter club. He had also played there in knowledge with them, for I should have considered it the afternoon. The evidence of those who had played my first duty to have done so had I not been barred with him—Mr. Murray, Sir John Hardy, and Colonel by a positive prohibition from his own lips, which Moran—showed that the game was whist, and that was only withdrawn upon the third of last month. there was a fairly equal fall of the cards. Adair might have lost five pounds, but not more. His fortune was It can be imagined that my close intimacy with a considerable one, and such a loss could not in any Sherlock Holmes had interested me deeply in crime, way affect him. He had played nearly every day at and that after his disappearance I never failed to read one club or other, but he was a cautious player, and with care the various problems which came before usually rose a winner. It came out in evidence that the public, and I even attempted more than once for in partnership with Colonel Moran he had actually my own private satisfaction to employ his methods in won as much as four hundred and twenty pounds in their solution, though with indifferent success. There a sitting some weeks before from Godfrey Milner and was none, however, which appealed to me like this Lord Balmoral. So much for his recent history, as it tragedy of Ronald Adair. As I read the evidence at the came out at the inquest. inquest, which led up to a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown, I realized On the evening of the crime he returned from the more clearly than I had ever done the loss which the club exactly at ten. His mother and sister were out community had sustained by the death of Sherlock spending the evening with a relation. The servant de- Holmes. There were points about this strange busi- posed that she heard him enter the front room on the ness which would, I was sure, have specially appealed second floor, generally used as his sitting-room. She to him, and the efforts of the police would have been had lit a fire there, and as it smoked she had opened supplemented, or more probably anticipated, by the the window. No sound was heard from the room trained observation and the alert mind of the first until eleven-twenty, the hour of the return of Lady criminal agent in Europe. All day as I drove upon my Maynooth and her daughter. Desiring to say good- round I turned over the case in my mind, and found night, she had attempted to enter her son’s room. The no explanation which appeared to me to be adequate. door was locked on the inside, and no answer could At the risk of telling a twice-told tale I will recapitu- be got to their cries and knocking. Help was obtained late the facts as they were known to the public at the and the door forced. The unfortunate young man conclusion of the inquest. was found lying near the table. His head had been 3 The Adventure of the Empty House horribly mutilated by an expanding revolver bullet, others crowded round to listen to what he said. I got but no weapon of any sort was to be found in the as near him as I could, but his observations seemed room. On the table lay two bank-notes for ten pounds to me to be absurd, so I withdrew again in some dis- each and seventeen pounds ten in silver and gold, gust. As I did so I struck against an elderly deformed the money arranged in little piles of varying amount. man, who had been behind me, and I knocked down There were some figures also upon a sheet of paper several books which he was carrying. I remember with the names of some club friends opposite to them, that as I picked them up I observed the title of one of from which it was conjectured that before his death he them, The Origin of Tree Worship, and it struck me that was endeavouring to make out his losses or winnings the fellow must be some poor bibliophile who, either at cards. as a trade or as a hobby, was a collector of obscure volumes. I endeavoured to apologize for the accident, A minute examination of the circumstances served but it was evident that these books which I had so only to make the case more complex. In the first place, unfortunately maltreated were very precious objects no reason could be given why the young man should in the eyes of their owner. With a snarl of contempt have fastened the door upon the inside. There was the he turned upon his heel, and I saw his curved back possibility that the murderer had done this and had and white side-whiskers disappear among the throng. afterwards escaped by the window. The drop was at least twenty feet, however, and a bed of crocuses in My observations of No. 427, Park Lane did little to full bloom lay beneath. Neither the flowers nor the clear up the problem in which I was interested. The earth showed any sign of having been disturbed, nor house was separated from the street by a low wall were there any marks upon the narrow strip of grass and railing, the whole not more than five feet high. It which separated the house from the road.

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