The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-05

count of Rieoletti of the club-foot. and his abominable wife. And here--ah, now, this really is something little re-
 cherche.'
 He dived his arm down to the bottom of the chest, and brought up a small wooden box with a sliding lid. such as chldrens toys are kept in. From within
 he procured a crumpled piece of paper,
 on old-fashioned brass key, peg of wood
 with a ball of string attached to 1t, and l three rusty old disks of metal.
 | Well, my boy. what do you make of
 this lot?' he asked, smiling at my ex-
 pression.
 | Tt is a curious collection
 "Very curious, and the story that hangs
 round it will strike you as being more | curious still" , These relics have a history. then?'
 So much so that they are history What do you mean by that?' | Sherlock Holmes picked them up one | by one, and laid them along the edge | of the table. Then he reseated himself ! in his chair and looked them over with l a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes. These" said he, "are all that l have left 10 remind me of the adventure of the | Musgrave Ritual"
 I had heard him mention the case more l than once though l had never been able | to gather the details. '"G should be so | glad, sald l, II you would give me an | account of it."
 And leave the litter as it is?" he | cried, mischievously. Your tidness won t l bear much strain after all. Watson. Bat | should be glad that you should add | this to your annals, for there are points | in 1t which make it quite unique in the criminal records of this, or, 1 believe, of any other country. A collection of my | trif1fng achievements would certainly be l inpOmnptp which contained m orpO1int l of this very singular business.
 You may remember how the affair of the Gloria Scott and my conversation with the unhappy man whose fate l told you of first turned my attention in the direc- | tion of the profession which has become my life's work. You see me now when my name has become known far and wide, and when am generally recognized both by the public and by the official | force as being a final court of appeal ill doubtful cases. Even when you knew
 me first at the time of the affair which | you have commemorated in "A Study in | Scarlet had already established a con siderable though not very lucrative, connection. You can hardly realize, then, how difficult I found it at first, and how long l had to wait before I succeeded in | making any headway.
 "When first came up to London l had
 rooms in Montague street, just round the corner rom the BrltlSn InuSeufl, dHti there I waited filling in my too abundant leisure time by studying all those branches of science which might make me more efficient. Now and again cases came in my way, principally through the | introduction of old fellow-students, for l during my last years at the university l there was a good deal of talk there about | myself and my methods. The third or 1 these cases was that of the Musgrave 1 Ritual, and if is to the interest which was aroused by that singular chain of events | and the large issues which proved to be at stake, that I trace my first stride to- | wards the position which I now hold. 1 "Reginold Musgrave had been In the | same college as myself. and l had some | slight acquaintance with him. He was | not generally popular among the under ! graduates, though 1t always seemed to me | that what was set down as pride was really an attempt to cover extreme natural 1 diffidence. In appearance he was man of | an exceedingly arstocratic type. thln | high-nosed and large-eyed, with languid | and yet courtly manners. He was indeed ! scion of one of the very oldest families l in the kingdom. though his branch was a cadet one which had separated from the
 northern Musgraves some time in the six
 | teenth century. and had established itself | in Western Sussex, where the Manol ] House of Hurlstone is perhaps the oldest
 inhabited building in the country. Some | thing of his birthplace seemed to cling tc
 | the man, and I never looked at his pale keen face or the boise of his head without