e he was down in the world. I watched his son all
I could for the sake of the old days. Well, sir, when I came into this
room yesterday when the alarm was given, the very first thing I saw was
Mr. Gilchrist's tan gloves a-lying in that chair. I knew those gloves
well, and I understood their message. If Mr. Soames saw them the game
was up. I flopped down into that chair, and nothing would budge me until
Mr. Soames he went for you. Then out came my poor young master, whom I
had dandled on my knee, and confessed it all to me. Wasn't it natural,
sir, that I should save him, and wasn't it natural also that I should
try to speak to him as his dead father would have done, and make him
understand that he could not profit by such a deed? Could you blame me,
sir?"

"No, indeed," said Holmes, heartily, springing to his feet. "Well,
Soames, I think we have cleared your little problem up, and our
breakfast awaits us at home. Come, Watson! As to you, sir, I trust that
a bright future awaits you in Rhodesia. For once you have fallen low.
Let us see in the future how high you can rise."

*****

THE STRAND MAGAZINE
Vol. 28 JULY, 1904
THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
By ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

X.--The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez.

WHEN I look at the three massive manuscript volumes which contain our
work for the year 1894 I confess that it is very difficult for me,
out of such a wealth of material, to select the cases which are most
interesting in themselves and at the same time most conducive to a
display of those peculiar powers for which my friend was famous. As I
turn over the pages I see my notes upon the repulsive story of the red
leech and the terrible death of Crosby the banker. Here also I find an
account of the Addleton tragedy and the singular contents of the ancient
British barrow. The famous Smith-Mortimer succession case comes also
within this period, and so does the tracking and arrest of Huret, the
Boulevard assassin--an exploit which won for Holmes an autograph letter
of thanks from the French President and the Order of the Legion of
Honour. Each of these would furnish a narrative, but on the whole I am
of opinion that none of them unite so many singular points of interest
as the episode of Yoxley Old Place, which includes not only the
lamentable death of young Willoughby Smith, but also those subsequent
developments which th