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the return of sherlock holmes.

by arthur conan doyle.

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i. -- the adventure of the empty house.

it 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 have done 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was only withdrawn upon the third of last month.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.

the honourable ronald adair was the second son of the earl

of maynooth, at that time governor of one of the australian

colonies. adair's mother had returned from australia to

undergo the operation for cataract, and she, her son ronald,

and her daughter hilda were living together at 427, park lane.

the youth moved in the best society, had, so far as was known,

no enemies, and no particular vices. he had been engaged to

miss edith woodley, of carstairs, but the engagement had been

broken off by mutual consent some months before, and there was

no sign that it had left any very profound feeling behind it.

for the rest the man's life moved in a narrow and conventional

circle, for his habits were quiet and his nature unemotional.

yet it was upon this easy-going young aristocrat that death

came in most strange and unexpected form between the hours

of ten and eleven-twenty on the night of march 30, 1894.

ronald adair was fond of cards, playing continually, but

never for such stakes as would hurt him. he was a member

of the baldwin, the cavendish, and the bagatelle card

clubs. it was shown that after dinner on the day of his

death he had played a rubber of whist at the latter club.

he had also played there in the afternoon. the evidence

of those who had played with him -- mr. murray, sir john

hardy, and colonel moran -- showed that the game was whist,

and that there was a fairly equal fall of the cards. adair

might have lost five pounds, but not more. his fortune was

a considerable one, and such a loss could not in any way

affect him. he had played nearly every day at one club or

other, but he was a cautious player, and usually rose a

winner. it came out in evidence that in partnership with

colonel moran he had actually won as much as four hundred

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