The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-03-05
(Copyrlgh+. 1903, by A. Conan Doyle &
Golfers Weekly.)

e9zSxkEEsszaSS he was not consulted dur
ing those eight years, and there were
hundreds Of private cases. some of
them OF the most intricate and extra
ordinary character. in which he played
n prominent part. Many startling sue
cesses and few unavoidable failures
were the outcome of this long period OF
continuous work. AS / have preserved
very full notes of all these cases and
was myself personally engaged in
many of them, IL may be imagined that
II is no easy task to know which 1
should select to lay before the public
shall, however, preserve my former
rule. and give the preference to those
cases which derive their interest not
so much from the brutality of the crime
as from the ingenuity and dramatic
quality OF the solution. For this reason
I viii now lay before the reader the
facts connected with Miss Violet
Smith, the solitary cyclist of Charling-
ton, and the curious sequel of our in
vestigation, which eliminated in I'M
expected tragedy Tt is true that the
circumstance did not admit of any
striking illustration of those powers
for which my friend was famous, but
there were some points about the case
which made it stand out in those long
records of crime from which / gather
the material for these little narratives.
On referring to my note book for
the year 1895. I find that it was upon
Saturday, the 23rd Of April, that we
first heard of Miss Violet Smith. Her
visit was, remember, extremely I'M
welcome 10 Holmes, for he was inn
rnereed at the moment in a very alb
struse and complicated problem con-
corning the peculiar persecution TO
which John Vincent Harden. the we'll
known tobacco millionaire, had been
subjected My friend, who loved above
all things precision and concentration
Of thought. resented anything which
distracted his attention from the mat
ter IN hand And yet, without a harsh
lie
IT was impossible to refuse to listen to
the story of the young and beautiful
woman, tall, graceful, and queenly,
who presented herself at Baker street
late in the evening, and implored his
assistance and advice 1t was vain to
urge that his time was already fully
occupied. for the young lady had come
with the determination to tell her
story, and it was evident that nothing
short of force could get her out OF the
room until she had done So With a
resigned air and somewhat weary
smile, Holmes begged the beautiful IN
truder to take a seat, and TO inform
us what IL was that was troubling her.
AT least fl cannot be your health, y
said he, as his keen eyes darted over
her; 80 ardent a bicyclist must be
full Of energy"
She glanced down in surprise at her
feet. and I observed the slight rough
ening of the side of the sole caused by
the friction of the edge of the pedal
Eyes, / bicycle a good deal. Mr..
Holmes, and that has something to do
with my visit to you today
Ny friend took the lady'S ung1oVed
hand, and examined it with as close an
attention and as little sentiment as a
scientist would show to a specimen
"You VIII excuse me, am sure. 1t is
my business" said he. as he dropped
it Ell nearly fell into the error of sup
posing that you were typewriting- OF
course, it Is obvious that it is music.
You observe the spatulate fnger-ends,
Watson, which is common to both pro-
fessionS? There is a spirituality about
the face, however"-she gently turned
il towards the light-''which the type
writer does not generate. This lady is
a musician"
YES Mr.. Holmes, L teach music"
IN the country, presume, from
your complexion
yes. sir, near Farnham, on the
borders of Surrey"
"A beautiful neighborhood, and full
of the most interesting associations.
You remember, Watson, that 1t was
near there that we took Archie STAN
ford. the forger- Now, Miss Violet.
what has happened 10 you, near
Farnham. on the borders of Surrey?''
The young lady, with great clearress
and composure, made the following
Scurious statement
"My father is dead, Mr.. Holmes. He
was James Smith, who conducted the
=
NV mother and I were left without a
relation in the world except one uncle,
Ralph Smith, who went TO Africa
twenty-five years ago, and we have
never had a word from him since When
father died, we were left very poor,
but one day we were told that there
was an advertisement in the Times, in
curing for our whereabouts. You
can imagine how excited we were, for
we thought that some one had left US
a fortune. We went at once TO the
lawyer whose name was given in the
paper There we met two gentlemen,
Mr.. Carruthers and Mr.. WoOdley, who
were home on visit from South
Africa. They said that my uncle was a
friend of theirs. that he had died some
months before in great poverty IN
johannesburg, and that he had asked
them with his last breath to hunt up
his relations, and see that they were
in no want It seemed strange to us
that Uncle Ralph, who took no notice
OF US when he was alive, should be so
careful TO look after us when ne was
dead. but Mr.. Carruthers explained
that the reason was that my uncle had
lust heard of the death of his brother
and so felt responsible for our fate.
Excuse me-" said Holmes. When
was this interview
Last December-four months ago.
Pray proceed"
"Mr. Woodley seemed to me to be a
most odious person. He was forever
faced, red-moustached young man.
with his hair plastered down on each
side of his forehead. I thought that he
was perfectly hateful-and was sure
that Cyril would not wish me TO know
such a person.
''Oh, Cyril is his namer said Holmes,
smiling.
The young lady blushed and laughed.
Eyes, Mr.. Holmes, Cyril Morton. an
electrical engineer. and We hope to be
married at the end Of the summer
Dear me. how did I get talking about
him7 What wished to say was that
Mr.. WoOdley was perfectly odious, but
that Mr.. Carruthers, who was much
older man, was more agreeable. He
was dark, sallOw. clean-shaven. silent
person, but he had polite manners and
"A pleasant smile He inquired how we
were left. and on finding that we were
very poor, he suggested that should
come and teach music TO his only
daughter aged ten. 1 said that 1 did
not like to leave my mother, on which
he suggested that I should go home TO
her every week end, and he offered me
a hundred a year, which was certainly
splendid pay. So II ended by my &C