Sherlock Holmes Investigates

 

When I look at my notes which I have made over the last eight years of the 70 or more cases done by my friend, Sherlock Holmes, I find many cases which are very sad, some which are funny, and many which are only strange. There are none which are ordinary; because he worked for enjoyment, not for money. He refused to do any investigation which was not rather unusual, or even fantastic.

Of all these cases though, I can't remember any which were as strange as the case of a well-known Surrey family, the Roylotts of Stoke Warren. The events happened in the early days of my time with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors in Baker Street. I have written about them before, but at that time I promised not to release my notes, and this has only changed during the last month because of the death of the lady who I made the promise to. Now is perhaps a good time for the facts to be known, since I know there are a lot of stories about the death of Dr Grimsby Roylott, and these stories are sometimes even more terrible than the truth.

Vocabulary:

Speckled: Having lots of little dots on it.
Band: Something which is long and thin and flat.
Cases: Investigations.
Strange: Unusual.
None: Not one.
Fantastic: very strange. (Today some people use this to mean. very good, but that is not the meaning here.)
Sharing: Both using together.
Bachelor: Somebody who is not married.