A Sherlock Holmes Btory.

Manawatu Herald, 1 July 1899, Page 2

A Sherlock Holmes Btory.

The original of " Sherlock Holmes," from whom Conan Doyle drew his masterly narratives of the inimitable detective, was actually an Edinburgh physician, concerning Avhom some marvellous stories are told. The following example, which has not been narrated before, js as wondorful ' as its predecessors : — On one occasion the physician in question was summoned to a house whose master had been found in a dying condition. The gentleman— who died before the physician arrived— lay prostrate on a low couch in his drawing room. On the table was a revolver, loaded in three chambers, while the fourth chamber had evidently been but recently discharged. The man had died from a bullet through his brain. Prior to his death, the servants had heard a shot in the room where the man died. The revolver really belonged to an acquaintance, who had recently visited the house, and with whom the master was known to be on bad terms. The case looked very black against the owner of the revolver, who was arrested on suspicion, but strenuously asserted his innocence. The case was sent forward for trial, andftfn due course the suspected man was found guilty and sentenced to death. But a reprieve was granted on subsequent evidence deduced and submitted by the shrewd physician, who told how he

had examined the room where the death occurred, and had found upon a table near the window a decanter of water. The setting sun had shot its ray3 through this globe (which had acted as a burning-glass) on to the cartridge of the revolver, and so fired the weapon, the bullet of which had slain the slumbering man upon the couch. This remarkable evidence, amply demonstrated by the physiciandetective, secured rhe release of the condemned man.— Weekly Telegraph.