]

[Illustration: AGE 38. From a Photograph.]

[Illustration: PRESENT DAY AS LORD MAYOR. From a Photograph by the
London Stereoscopic Co.]

Mr. Stuart Knill, whose election to the Mayoralty this year was invested
with unusual interest, is the son of the late Mr. John Knill, of Fresh
Wharf, London Bridge, to whose business he succeeded. He was educated at
the Blackheath Proprietary School, and at the University of Bonn. He
entered the Corporation in 1885 as Alderman of the Ward of Bridge, and
served the office of Sheriff in 1889-90. He is a member of the
Goldsmiths' Company, and is now Master of the Guild of Plumbers for the
second time. In this capacity he has taken great interest in all matters
connected with sanitation and hygiene. He is a leading member of the
Roman Catholic laity in England.

_The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes._

XIV.--THE ADVENTURE OF THE CARDBOARD BOX.

BY CONAN DOYLE.

In choosing a few typical cases which illustrate the remarkable mental
qualities of my friend, Sherlock Holmes, I have endeavoured, as far as
possible, to select those which presented the minimum of sensationalism,
while offering a fair field for his talents. It is, however,
unfortunately, impossible to entirely separate the sensational from the
criminal, and a chronicler is left in the dilemma that he must either
sacrifice details which are essential to his statement, and so give a
false impression of the problem, or he must use matter which chance, and
not choice, has provided him with. With this short preface I shall turn
to my notes of what proved to be a strange, though a peculiarly
terrible, chain of events.

It was a blazing hot day in August. Baker Street was like an oven, and
the glare of the sunlight upon the yellow brickwork of the houses across
the road was painful to the eye. It was hard to believe that these were
the same walls which loomed so gloomily through the fogs of winter. Our
blinds were half-drawn, and Holmes lay curled upon the sofa, reading and
rereading a letter which he had received by the morning post. For
myself, my term of service in India had trained me to stand heat better
than cold, and a thermometer at 90 was no hardship. But the morning
paper was uninteresting. Parliament had risen. Everybody was out of
town, and I yearned for the glades of the New Forest or the shingle of
Southsea. A depleted bank account had caused me to postpone my holiday,
and as to my companion, neither th