The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-09-12
THE ADVENTURE of the DEVILS FOOT
A "REMINISCENCES of SHERLOCK HOLMES
BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

interesting r~ecollections which l asso-
ciate with my long and intimate
friendship with Mr.. Sherlock
1,olmes, . l hay continually
been faced by difficulties caus-
cd by his own aversion to pub
licjty. To his sombre and cynical spirit
ali popular applause was always alb
borrent. and nothing amused him
more at the end Of a successful case
than to hand over the actual expos
IRE 10 some orthordox official, and
to listen with a knocking smile to the
general chorus of misplaced congrat-
@ulation. 1t was indeed this attitude
tainly not my ack of interesting
material. which has caused me Of late
years to lay very few of my records
before the public. My participation
in some of his adventures was always
a privilege which entailed discretion
and reticence upon me.
1t was, then, with considerable sur
prise that l received a telegram from
Holmes last Tuesday-he has never
been known to write where a tele-
gram would serve-in the following
terms: Why not tell them Of the Cor
nish horror-Strangest case | ever
handled j have no dea what back
ward sweep of memory had brought
the matter fresh to his mind, Or what
freak had caused him to desire that
I should recount it; but | hasten, be-
fore another cancelling telegram may
arrive, to hunt out the notes which
give me the exact details of the case,
and to lay the narrative before my
readers.
1t was then in the spring of the
year 1897. that Holmes iron constitu-
ton showed some symptoms Of giving
way in the face Of constant hard work
of a most exacting kind, aggravated,
perhaps, by occasional indiscretions
OF his own. In March Of hat year
DR.. Moore Agar, of Harley street,
whose dramatic introduction to
Holmes / may some day recount,
gave positive injunctions that the
famous private agent should lay aside
all his cases and surrender himself
to complete rest if he wished to avert
an absolute breakdown. The state
of his health vas not a matter in
which he himself took the faintest in
terest, for his mental detachment
was absolute. but he was Induced at
last, on the threat of being perma-
nentlv disqualified from work, to give
himself a complete chang OF
scene and air. Thus it was hat in
found ourselves together in a small
cottage near Poldhu Bay, at the far
Their extremity of the Cornish PENN
su!a.
Ii was a singular spot, and one pc
fuliarly we'll suited to h grim hu-
mour of my patient. From the win
dows of our little whiteWashed house,
which stood high upon a grassy head
land, we looked down upon the whole
sinister semicircle of Mounts Bay. that
old death-trap of sailing vessels. with
its fringe of black cliffs and surge
swept reefs on which innumerable
seamen have met their end. With a
northerly breeze it lies placid and
sheltered, inviting the storm-tossed
craft to tack into it for rest and
protection. Then comes the sudden
swirl round of the wind, the buster
ing gale from the southwest, the
dragging anchor, the lee shore, and
the last battle in the dreaming break
ers. The wise mariner stands TAI
out from that evil place.
ON the land side our surroundings
were as sombre as on the sea. 1t was
a country Of rolling moors, lonely
and dun-coloured, with an occasional
church tower to mark the site o.
some old-world village. In every di'
fectlon upon these o there were
traces Of some vanished race Whicf
mad passed utterly away. and left a:
It's sole record strange monuments O
stone, irregular mounds which con.
tanned the burned ashes of the dead
and curious earthworks which hintet
at prehistoric strife. The glamour
and mystery Of the place. with it
sinister atmosphere Of forgotten ma
mons, appealed to the imagination o
my friend, and he spent much Of hi
tlme in long walks and solitary med1
tatlons upon the moor. The ancien
cornish language had also ARRESTED
ms attention. and he had, 1 remem