ings of "The Adventure of the Second
Stain," "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty," and "The Adventure of the
Tired Captain." The first of these, however, deals with interest of such
importance and implicates so many of the first families in the kingdom
that for many years it will be impossible to make it public. No case,
however, in which Holmes was engaged has ever illustrated the value
of his analytical methods so clearly or has impressed those who were
associated with him so deeply. I still retain an almost verbatim report
of the interview in which he demonstrated the true facts of the case
to Monsieur Dubugue of the Paris police, and Fritz von Waldbaum, the
well-known specialist of Dantzig, both of whom had wasted their energies
upon what proved to be side-issues. The new century will have come,
however, before the story can be safely told. Meanwhile I pass on to
the second on my list, which promised also at one time to be of national
importance, and was marked by several incidents which give it a quite
unique character.

During my school-days I had been intimately associated with a lad named
Percy Phelps, who was of much the same age as myself, though he was two
classes ahead of me. He was a very brilliant boy, and carried away every
prize which the school had to offer, finished his exploits by winning
a scholarship which sent him on to continue his triumphant career at
Cambridge. He was, I remember, extremely well connected, and even when
we were all little boys together we knew that his mother's brother
was Lord Holdhurst, the great conservative politician. This gaudy
relationship did him little good at school. On the contrary, it seemed
rather a piquant thing to us to chevy him about the playground and hit
him over the shins with a wicket. But it was another thing when he
came out into the world. I heard vaguely that his abilities and the
influences which he commanded had won him a good position at the Foreign
Office, and then he passed completely out of my mind until the following
letter recalled his existence:

Briarbrae, Woking. My dear Watson,--I have no doubt that you can
remember "Tadpole" Phelps, who was in the fifth form when you were in
the third. It is possible even that you may have heard that through my
uncle's influence I obtained a good appointment at the Foreign Office,
and that I was in a situation of trust and honor until a horrible
misfortune came suddenly to blast my career.

There is no u