On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight yearsstudied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a largenumber merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of hisart than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigationwhich did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. Of all these varied cases,however, I cannot recall any which presented more singular features than that which wasassociated with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. It is possible that Imight have placed them upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the time,from which I have only been freed during the last month by the untimely death of the lady towhom the pledge was given.

It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing,fully dressed, by the side of my bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on themantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I blinked up at him in somesurprise, and perhaps just a little resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits.

‘Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,' said he, 'but it's the common lot this morning. Mrs Hudsonhas been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you.'

‘What is it, then — a fire?'

‘No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a considerable state of excitement, whoinsists upon seeing me. Now, when young ladies wander about the metropolis at this hour of themorning, and knock sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is something verypressing which they have to communicate. Should it prove to be an interesting case, you would,I am sure, wish to follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should call you and giveyou the chance?'

'My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything.

'I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations, and inadmiring the rapid deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a logical basiswith which he unravelled the problems which were submitted to him. I rapidly threw on myclothes and was ready in a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. Alady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in the window, rose as we entered.