The evening world. Newspaper, March 18, 1905, Page 11

. | Including Spectal Color Supplement AE 1 Cent ANNAN ANNs RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLME SIXTH STORY OF THE SERIES, 1) THe Mystery or BLAGK PETER. BY SIR A, CONAN DOYLE, (Copyright, 1904, by A, Conan Doyle and Colller’s Weekly, Copyright, 1003, by McClure, Phil!lps & Co.) HAVE never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physical, than in the year '95, His increasing fame had brought with ft an immense practice, and I should be guilty of an fndiscretion if 1 were even to hint at the identity of some of she ‘Ilustrious cllents who crossed our humble threshold in Baker street, Holmes, however, like all great artists, lived for his art's Suke, and, save in the case of the Duke of Holdernesse, [| have seldom known him to claim any large rewaré for his inestimable fervices. So unworldly was he—or 80 ca; us—that he fre- quently refused his help to the powerful and wealthy where the problem made no appeal to his sympathies, while he would devote weeks of most iniense application to tho affairs o7 some humble client whosu case presented those . and dramatic qualities which appealed to his imagination and challenged his ingenuity, In this memorable year ' curfour end incongruous sue- cession of cascs had engaged his atiention, ranging from his famous investigation of the sudden death of Cardinal Tosca—an inquiry which was carried out by him at the express desire of His Holiness tho Pope—down to his arrest of Wilson, the notorious canary trainer, which removed a plague-spot from the Hast Kind of London, on the heels of these two famous cases came the tragedy of Woodman's Leo, and the vary olscnre circumstances which surrounded the death of Capt, Peter Cary, No record of the doings of Mr. Sherlock Holmes would be com- plete which did not include some account of ¢his very unusual affair. During the first week of July my friend had been absent 80 often and so long from our 4 i | Che cveyitc SIPELEMENY TO THE EVENING WORLD. SATURDAY. batt. huts 7 lodgings that I knew he had something on hand, ‘The fact that several rough-looking men called during that time and inquired for Cant, Basi] made me understand that Holmes was working somewhere under one of the numerous disguises and names ‘With which he con- cealed his own formidable identity. He had at least five small refuges in different parts of London in which he was able to change his personality. He said nothing of his b 83 to ino, and it was not my habit to force a confidence, The first positive sign which he gave me of the direction which his investigation was taking was an extfaordinary one, He had gone out before breakfast, nnd I had sat down to mine, when he strode into the room, his hat upon his head and a huge barb-headed spear tucked like an umbrella under his arm. "Good gracious, Holmes!" I cried, ‘You don't mean to say that you have heen walking about London with that thing?” drove to the butcher's and back. “The butcher's?” “And I return with an exce!lent appetite, There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast, But I am prepared to bet that you will not guess the form that my exercise has taken, “T will not attempt 4.” He chuckled as he poured out the coffoo. “If you could have looked Into Allardyce's back shop you would have seen a dead pig swung from a hook In the ceiling and a gentleman in his shirt sleeves furiously stabbing at it with this weapon, I was that energetic person, and I have satisfled myself that by no exertion of my strength can I transfix the pig with a single blow, Perhaps you would cara to try?” Not for worlds, But why were you doing this “Because it seemed to me to have an indirect bearing upon the mystery of Woodman's Lee, Ah, Hopkins, I got your wire last night, and I have been expecting you, Come and join us,” i Our visitor was an exceedingly alert man, thirty years of age, dressed in a quiet tweed suit, but retaining the erect bearing of one who was accustomed to official uniform. 1 rec- ognized him at once as Stanley Hopkins, a young police inspector, for whose future Holmes had high hopes, while he in turn professed the admiration and respect of a pupil for the scientific methods of the famous amateur, Hopkins’s brow was clouded, and he sat down with an air of deep dejection. “No, thank you, sir, I breakfasted I ne up yesterday to report,” And what had you to report?” “Failure, sir; absolute failure,” hefore [came round, I spent the night in town, for The New Sherlock Holmes Adventures MAR. 187! 1905, NEXT SATURDAY—THE SEVENTH STORY, The Mystery of Charles Augustus Milverton, THERE WILL BE THIRTEEN STORIES IN ALL. “Youn have made no progress?” “None,” j “Dear me! I must have a look at the matter.” ‘ “T wish to heaven that you would, Mr, Holmes, It’s my firat big chance, and I am at my wits' end, For goodness sake, come down and lend me a hand,” “Well, well, it just happens that I have already read all the available evidence, includ- ing the report of the inquest, with some care, By the way, what do you make of that to- bacco pouch found on the scene of the crime? Is there no clue there?” Hopkins looked surprised, y “Tt was the man’s own pouch, sit, His initials were inside it, And it was of sealskin —and he was an old sealer,” ¢ “But he had no pipe.” ) “No, sir, we could find no pipe, Indeed, he smoked very little; and yet he might have kept some tobacco for bis friends. ty “No doubt, I only mention it because, if I had been handling the case IT should hay peer: inclined to think that the starting point of ny Investigation. However, my friend, Dr. Watson, knows nothing of this matter, and I should be none the worse for hearing the sequence of events once more, Just give us some short sketches of the essentials.” Stanley [fopkins drew a slip of paper from his pocket. have a few dates here which will give you the career of the dead man, Capt, Peter He was born in '45—fifty years of age, He was a most daring and successful seal and whale fisher, In 1883 he commanded the steam sealer Sea Unicorn, of Dundee, He had then had several successful voyages In succession, and In the following year, 1884, he re- After that he travelled for some years, and finally he bought a smaii place called Woodman's Lee; near Forest Row, in Sussex, There he has lived for six years, and there ho died just a week ago to-day. “There were some most singular points about the man, In ordinary life he was a strlot Puritan—a silent, gloomy fellow. Cary